When studying animal behaviors, biologists generally have to
wait for something to happen — either for an animal to do
something, or for one animal to provoke another. Alternatively,
they could use robot animals, tempting them with sexy fembots,
mama-bots or tasty prey. Predators of the threatened Mojave
ground squirrel include badgers, coyotes, snakes, falcons,
hawks, and U.S. military aerial strikes. That's because the
squirrel makes its home in a section of California's Mojave
Desert also used by the Air Force as a practice area. But the
military has to make sure not to accidentally bomb the
squirrels, them being threatened and all, and expends a lot of
time and money trying to find them so as to avoid that. Five
amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this
month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb
detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a
human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.