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Comment by numlocked | Hacker News Reader

"Because the hummingbird’s tongue is so efficient, the researchers think...perhaps liquid-sipping robots could benefit"

A great day for science indeed. We stand on the precipice of a revolution in liquid-sipping robot technology; our children will scarcely believe the languid speed of their parents' liquid-sipping robots.

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Yeah, that whole paragraph really read like someone went "oh crap, we need to say something about the implications and practical implications of this research, otherwise what's the point of it all?!" and then forced something out of the researchers.

Now excuse me while I go and kick my darned slow liquid-sipping robots out of frustration.

Funny comment, made me laugh. But it's not just the major discoveries that make science valuable. It is also the accumulation of many small discoveries that shape our knowledge/understanding of the world.

Thank god there are new intersting things left to discover.

Maybe a robot being used for chemical analysis could benefit? And... yep, that's about the limits of my ideas here.

Very this.

I was just working today with a coagulation test machine (Coag-A-Mate: http://www.gmi-inc.com/BioMerieux-Coag-A-Mate-2210.html) that can draw samples and reagents from an array of loaded vials. A "liquid-sipping robot" would actually be a VERY accurate description.

You jest, but I wonder if these type of technology would be useful for the clean up of the Deepwater Horizon spill?

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