The robot fish in its natural environment. (Credit: James Pikul)

When it comes to designing better gizmos, efficiency is the name of the game. Why have two separate components to do two separate tasks, if you can have one do both? We have a whole bird-killing metaphor about how great it is to be efficient.

Well, what’s good for the goose, it turns out, is also good
for the robot fish.

A team of engineers at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania have created a soft fish-shaped ro