Apparently, anayzing the mucus that lines a whale's blowhorn can tell you a lot about the animal's health -- think of it as the cetacean equivalent to human bloodwork. The problem is, how do you collect snot from a massive animal that lives underwater? Over at the Olin College of Engineering, a group of researchers got together and came up with a tool to collect whale mucus: a flying drone they lovingly call Snot Bot. The robocopter hovers directly above whales' blowholes, using surgical sponges to soak up the animals' snot when they surface to spray water out of their systems. These researchers have been working on Snot Bot for years, but now they're trying to urge the Federal Aviation Commission to give them permission to use it on real whales READ THE FULL STORY
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