If popular culture is to be believed, there are a few great divides that are immutable. Yankees versus the Red Sox. Android versus iPhone. Technology versus nature. Never the two shall meet.
But that last one? Maybe we should stop taking it for granted. A new Dutch exhibition called Robotanica is exploring how technology and robotics in particular might play a collaborative role with the natural world. The curators have picked 11 different projects from designers, scientists, and artists that imagine how technology could blend with, and ultimately benefit, nature.
Some are real research projects or concepts, while others are more like conversation pieces. But all of them are fascinating ideas. Check them out below.
1. One big idea seen in multiple exhibits — could robots mimic, or even replace, natural animals?
It's kind of cute. All photos from Transnatural/Robotanica.
The Delfly Explorer, for instance, is a small, robotic dragonfly that can flap its wings, control its height, and even see and avoid obstacles. Can you picture a bunch of these guys skimming across the surface of a pond?
2. Swarms of the Vessel robots could paddle across the surface of water.
These are considerably less cute. The lights are a nice touch though.
3. The Woodpecker Project could even mimic the sounds of a disappearing species.
Just wait until someone hacks in and starts playing AC/DC.
The Woodpecker Project uses speakers to recreate the sound of an endangered bird species. It's not just for show — the calls help keep insects away that'd otherwise hurt the tree.
It's not a perfect solution. “We maybe better focus on protecting the biological woodpeckers,” exhibit curator Arjen Bangma told Fast Company. But the mechanical version might be able to help out while the natural population recovers.
Other projects outside the exhibition, like the robo-bee, have also looked at using robots to help replace natural animals.
4. How about living cyborg insects that could be controlled via computer? Could they be used to help find people after a disaster?
This is the least cute of all. It's, like, negative cute.
While some of these projects are more conceptual, robo-bugs are very much a real thing. You can even buy kits yourself.
5. On the other hand, maybe we could use technology to shape the world to our liking. How about a coat that breathes along with us and that could alert us to air pollution?
If someone walked up to me wearing this coat, I'd just assume they're a superhero.
6. The Cloud Machine imagines a sky full of weather-making machines to help control the climate.
I bet it makes a "spfffff" noise. Also, what is this hanging from?
Geoengineering and climate engineering are real concepts, though many people are scared of unexpected consequences basically turning the Earth into a Hollywood disaster movie.
7. The Weather War examines whether we could use machines to help redirect tornadoes.
Yeah, let's put a mysterious black orb in this field. That's not totally ominous.
The exhibit is based on the 2012 documentary of the same name.
8. What would robotics do to the animals we keep? Would the lives of farm chickens improve if we placed them in a virtual reality simulation of nature?
I really don't see how any caption could improve this.
9. What if we released herds of wild rolling tumbleweed-bots to collect data about desertification?
"Drifting along in the tumbling tumbleweeeeed..."
Just imagine seeing 20 of these coming over the horizon.
10. Or released rolling, autonomous sunlight-seeking gardens onto our streets?
"Excuse me, hooman, but do you have any fertilizer?"
11. And, in this brave new world, will we need simulations to remember old-fashioned things like the night sky?
Looks like a kind of makeshift planetarium.
Whether or not these inventions and ideas come to pass, they raise a good point.
Technology doesn't have to come at the expense of the natural world. Scientists can use devices like GPS systems to help monitor animal populations; robo-animals can help documentarians get amazing shots of wildlife; and efficient appliances and cleaner energy can help us reduce our environmental footprints.
While you might have a hard time selling chicken farmers on those teeny-tiny virtual reality helmets, perhaps technology and nature don't need to be so divorced after all.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.