Underwater robot ‘Lassie’ discovers remarkable icefish nests during search for Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica

Frontiers

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Nests of the yellowfin notie (Lindbergichthys nudifrons). Each nest would have been guarded by a parent fish, protecting their eggs from predators. This remarkable organization is thought to be a survival strategy.

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Credit: Weddell Sea Expedition 2019

In a remote part of Antarctica's Western Weddell Sea, an area once hidden beneath a 200-metre-thick ice shelf, scientists have uncovered a new and unusual phenomena: extensive maintained fish nesting grounds arranged in patterns.

When the A68 iceberg, measuring 5,800 square kilometres, calved from Larsen C Ice Shelf in 2017, it opened new access for research. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) exploring the seafloor revealed more than 1,000 circular nests, each cleared of the layer of plankton detritus that blanketed surrounding areas. These nests were not randomly scattered, instead they were organised into distinct patterns, forming a vast, geometric fish neighbourhood on the seafloor.

The dimples in the sand are the cleaned fish nests. Some are singular, bottom right, some are in curves, centre top, and others in clusters, top left. All have been cleared of the carpet of phytoplankton detritus that covers surrounding areas – seen starkly in the centre top picture.

The expedition

The Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 had two aims: to conduct an interdisciplinary scientific programme in the waters surrounding the Larsen C Ice Shelf, and to locate, survey, and image the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, which sank in 1915. The scientific motivation was driven by the critical importance of Antarctica's floating ice shelves. These ice shelves play a crucial global role, acting to support and restrain ice flow from the vast interior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. When ice shelves thin or collapse, this restraint is lost, leading to accelerated ice flow from the continent, which in turn contributes to global sea-level rise. The expedition was particularly timely, following the major calving of iceberg A68. That calving event provided a unique opportunity to study a region undergoing rapid environmental change, specifically the first chance to study previously inaccessible areas of the seabed that were once underneath A68.

Equipped with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) aboard the South African polar research vessel SA Agulhas II, the team faced the same extreme sea-ice conditions that had crushed the Endurance vessel more than a century earlier. The immense pressure of the thick multi-year pack ice thwarted the 2019 search effort for the Endurance. Although this expedition did not locate the wreckage, the invaluable experience gained in navigating the treacherous ice and deploying submersible technology assisted with the planning and execution of the subsequent Endurance22 expedition on the same ship, which successfully located the remarkably well-preserved wreck in March 2022 at 3,008 meters below sea level.

A story of survival

The architects of these nests are a species of rockcod known as the yellowfin notie (Lindbergichthys nudifrons). Each nest would have been guarded by a parent fish, protecting their eggs from predators. This remarkable organisation is thought to be a survival strategy. The dense clusters demonstrate the ‘selfish herd’ theory in action: individuals in the centre of the group gain protection, shielded by their neighbours. The solitary nests on the outskirts are thought to be occupied by larger, stronger individuals better able to defend their nests. The entire community is a dynamic interplay between cooperation and self-preservation.

Why the discovery matters

This find is more than a scientific observation; it has critical implications for conservation. It provides evidence that this area contains a Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem, a unique and fragile habitat that is crucial for biodiversity. Importantly, it builds on previous work in the Weddell Sea, such as Purser et al. (2022), who revealed one of the largest known fish breeding colonies on Earth. These discoveries are vital to support the formal designation of the Weddell Sea as a Marine Protected Area. Protecting this area means safeguarding not just the iconic penguins and seals, but also these hidden nurseries that form part of the Antarctic food web. These underwater environments are a powerful reminder that even in the planet's most extremes, life finds a way to build complex, resilient communities.

Icefish nests [VIDEO] 1

Icefish nests [VIDEO] 2

Icefish nests [VIDEO]  3

Nests of the yellowfin notie (Lindbergichthys nudifrons). Each nest would have been guarded by a parent fish, protecting their eggs from predators. This remarkable organization is thought to be a survival strategy.

Nests of the yellowfin notie (Lindbergichthys nudifrons). Each nest would have been guarded by a parent fish, protecting their eggs from predators. This remarkable organization is thought to be a survival strategy.

Some are singular, bottom right, some are in curves, centre top, and others in clusters, top left. All have been cleared of the carpet of phytoplankton detritus that covers surrounding areas – seen starkly in the centre top picture.

Credit

Weddell Sea Expedition 2019

An impression of Shackleton's lost ship, the Endurance.

Credit

Olivier Leger

Journal

Frontiers in Marine Science

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2025.1648168 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A Finding of Maintained Cryonotothenioid Nesting Sites in the Western Weddell Sea

Article Publication Date

29-Oct-2025

FOR COSPLAY

Wearable robots you can wear like clothes: automatic weaving of “fabric muscle” brings commercialization closer

Automated weaving of ultra-light SMA-based fabric muscle enables mass production, powering the first wearable robot that assists three joints simultaneously

National Research Council of Science & Technology

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Principal Researcher Dr. Cheol Hoon Park(right) at the Advanced Robotics Research Center of KIMM

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Credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)

The commercialization of clothing-type wearable robots has taken a significant step forward with the development of equipment that can continuously and automatically weave ultra-thin shape memory alloy coil yarn—thinner than a human hair—into lightweight and flexible “fabric muscle” suitable for large-scale production.

The Advanced Robotics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Seog-Hyeon Ryu), under the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST, Chairman Young-Shik Kim), led by Principal Researcher Cheol Hoon Park, has developed an automated weaving system that enables the continuous mass production of fabric muscle, a lightweight yet powerful artificial muscle actuator.

The newly developed system uses shape memory alloy (SMA) wire with a diameter of 25 μm—about one-fourth the thickness of a human hair—processed into coil-shaped yarn, enabling the continuous weaving of fabric muscles. This fabric, weighing only 10 g, can lift 10–15 kg, making it an ideal core actuator for clothing-type wearable robots. The SMA coil yarn previously developed by KIMM used a metallic core wire, which resulted in low elongation and made automatic weaving difficult. To overcome this limitation, the KIMM research team replaced the metal core with natural fiber, redesigned the structure and fabrication process of the fabric muscle, and improved the weaving machine’s design, thereby achieving stable and continuous mass production.

Conventional wearable robots designed to assist multiple joints—such as the elbow, shoulder, and waist—relied on heavy, noisy motor or pneumatic actuators, making them bulky, expensive, and uncomfortable for long-term use. As a result, most could provide only limited support to specific joints. Active assistance for the shoulder has been particularly challenging due to its complex range of motion. In contrast, KIMM’s fabric muscle actuators are lightweight and flexible, allowing them to naturally conform to and actively assist multiple complex joints simultaneously. Using this technology, the research team developed the world’s first clothing-type wearable robot, weighing less than 2 kg, that simultaneously assists the elbow, shoulder, and waist, reducing muscle effort by more than 40% during repetitive physical tasks.

Furthermore, the team created an ultra-lightweight shoulder-assist robot weighing just 840 g, which patients with muscle weakness can comfortably wear and carry in daily life. In clinical trials conducted at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) on patients with muscular weakness, including those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the wearable shoulder-assist robot improved shoulder movement range by more than 57%.

With the ability to continuously produce high-quality, uniform fabric muscle through the automated weaving system, the research team has laid the foundation for the commercialization of clothing-type wearable robots.

This breakthrough is expected to reduce workers’ physical strain, improve patients’ quality of life, and accelerate the widespread adoption of wearable robots, thereby enhancing industrial competitiveness. In particular, the shoulder-assist robot, designed to support rehabilitation and daily activities of patients with muscle weakness, is expected to reduce caregiver burden while improving patient independence, quality of life, and self-esteem, and overall well-being.

“Our development of continuous mass-production technology for fabric muscle—the key component of clothing-type wearable robots—will significantly improve quality of life in fields such as healthcare, logistics, and construction,” said Dr. Cheol Hoon Park, Principal Researcher at KIMM’s Advanced Robotics Research Center. “We will continue to build on KIMM’s extensive wearable robotics technologies to accelerate commercialization and lead the global wearable robotics market.”

This research, which won the KIMM Best Research Award 2024, was supported by KIMM’s ACE program, the Core Robot Technology Development Program of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR), and the Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) Lee Kun-hee Child Cancer and Rare Disease Project. The findings were published online in the October 2025 issue of TNSRE (IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering), a leading international journal in the field of rehabilitation engineering.

Attachments:

Reference Material: Photo(Research Team led by Dr. Cheol Hoon Park)

 

  

Dr. Cheol Hoon Park(center), principal researcher at KIMM, examines a lightweight clothing-type wearable robot.

Dr. Cheol Hoon Park, principal researcher at the Advanced Robotics Research Center of KIMM, operates the automated muscle-fabric weaving machine.

Credit

Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)

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The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) is a non-profit government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Since its foundation in 1976, KIMM is contributing to economic growth of the nation by performing R&D on key technologies in machinery and materials, conducting reliability test evaluation, and commercializing the developed products and technologies.

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Journal

IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering

DOI

10.1109/TNSRE.2025.3613709 

Article Title

Soft Exosuit Based on Fabric Muscle to Assist Shoulder Joint Movements in Patients With Neuromuscular Diseases

Researcher improves century-old equation to predict movement of dangerous air pollutants.

University of Warwick

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A new method developed at the University of Warwick offers the first simple and predictive way to calculate how irregularly shaped nanoparticles — a dangerous class of airborne pollutant — move through air.

Every day, we breathe in millions of microscopic particles, including soot, dust, pollen, microplastics, viruses, and synthetic nanoparticles. Some are small enough to slip deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream, contributing to conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Most of these airborne particles are irregularly shaped. Yet the mathematical models used to predict how these particles behave typically assume they are perfect spheres, simply because the equations are easier to solve. This makes it difficult to monitor or predict the movement of real-world, non-spherical — and often more hazardous — particles.

Now, a researcher at the University of Warwick has developed the first simple method to predict the motion of irregular particles of any shape. The study, published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics Rapids, reworks a 100-year-old formula to bridge a key gap in aerosol science.

The paper’s author, Professor Duncan Lockerby, School of Engineering, University of Warwick said: “The motivation was simple: if we can accurately predict how particles of any shape move, we can significantly improve models for air pollution, disease transmission, and even atmospheric chemistry. This new approach builds on a very old model - one that is simple but powerful - making it applicable to complex and irregular-shaped particles.”

Reclaiming a century-old formula

The breakthrough stems from re-examining one of the cornerstones of aerosol science: the Cunningham correction factor. Developed in 1910, the factor was designed to predict how drag on tiny particles deviates from classical fluid laws. In the 1920s, Nobel Prize winner Robert Millikan refined the formula, but in doing so overlooked a simpler, more general correction. As a result, the modern version remained limited to perfectly spherical particles.

Professor Lockerby’s new work reformulates Cunningham’s original idea into a more general and elegant form. From this foundation, he introduces a “correction tensor” - a mathematical tool that captures the full range of drag and resistance forces acting on particles of any shape, from spheres to thin discs, without the need for empirical fitting parameters.

Professor Duncan Lockerby added: "This paper is about reclaiming the original spirit of Cunningham's 1910 work. By generalising his correction factor, we can now make accurate predictions for particles of almost any shape — without the need for intensive simulations or empirical fitting.

“It provides the first framework to accurately predict how non-spherical particles travel through the air, and since these nanoparticles are closely linked to air pollution and cancer risk, this is an important step forward for both environmental health and aerosol science."

Going Forward

The new model provides a more robust foundation for understanding how airborne particles move - across fields from air quality and climate modelling to nanotechnology and medicine. It could help researchers better predict how pollutants spread through cities, how volcanic ash or wildfire smoke travels, or how engineered nanoparticles behave in manufacturing and drug delivery systems.

To build on this breakthrough, Warwick’s School of Engineering has invested in a new state-of-the-art aerosol generation system. This facility will allow researchers to generate and precisely study a wider range of real-world, non-spherical particulates, further validating and extending the new method.

Professor Julian Gardner, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, who is collaborating with Professor Lockerby, said: “This new facility will allow us to explore how real-world airborne particles behave under controlled conditions, helping translate this theoretical breakthrough into practical environmental tools.”

ENDS

The paper “A correction tensor for approximating drag on slow-moving particles of arbitrary shape and Knudsen number,” has been published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics Rapids. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2025.10776

For more information please contact:

Matt Higgs, PhD | Media & Communications Officer (Press Office)

Email: Matt.Higgs@warwick.ac.uk | Phone: +44(0)7880 175403

About the University of Warwick

Founded in 1965, the University of Warwick is a world-leading institution known for its commitment to era-defining innovation across research and education. A connected ecosystem of staff, students and alumni, the University fosters transformative learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and bold industry partnerships across state-of-the-art facilities in the UK and global satellite hubs. Here, spirited thinkers push boundaries, experiment, and challenge conventions to create a better world.

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Journal

Journal of Fluid Mechanics

DOI

10.1017/jfm.2025.10776 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A correction tensor for approximating drag on slow-moving particles of arbitrary shape and Knudsen number

Article Publication Date

29-Oct-2025