Some scientists studying octopus arms conclude that they may represent the optimal design for robotic arms.

"If you had something—a person, say—floating in a water column or in space, a straight mechanical arm is likely to push it away," said Thomas McKenna, a project officer at the ONR. "But an arm you could use to gently wrap around an object and retrieve it, that would be useful."

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SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES Smithsonian Institute National Zoo (Giant Octopus) Mote Marine Laboratory Nature