By Véronique LaCapra :: Originally published online March 12, 2019

The idea for the Mesobot sprang from a somewhat tongue-in-cheek request. Dana Yoerger, a scientist and engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was having a chat with his WHOI colleague Larry Madin—a marine biologist. Madin spent much of his career scuba diving to get close to his research subjects: gelatinous animals such as jellyfish and salps.

“Larry looked at me and said, ‘Dana, can you build me a robot that can show me what I missed when I ran out of air?’ ”

“I laughed,” Yoerger said.  “Then I said, ‘Yes, I can.’ ”

» Read Oceanus magazine feature