'Squishy' robot fingers aid deep sea exploration

During a 2014 talk on his exploration of deep-sea coral reefs, Baruch College marine biologist David Gruber showed a video of clunky robotic hands collecting fragile specimens of coral and sponges from the ocean floor. Harvard engineer and roboticist Robert J. Wood was in the audience—the two scientists were being recognized as Emerging Explorers by the National Geographic Society—and a lightbulb went off.