To find out just how your relaxed vacuuming schedule is affecting your baby’s airway, researchers built a slightly frightening robotic infant.

This legless, metallic baby crawled across five wool rugs from real people’s homes in Finland. (The grounded aluminum tape covering the robot helped to minimize static during its 25 crawling sessions of 20 minutes each.) Researchers had asked the people sharing their rugs not to vacuum for two weeks beforehand. As the robot crawled, advanced instru