TINY SENSORS SOLVE SNAIL SURVIVAL MYSTERY

Miniature computers fixed to snail shells.

A collaboration between University of Michigan biologists and a team of engineers who designed the world’s smallest computer has demonstrated that a French Polynesian tree snail, Partula

hyalina, survived after the introduction of rosy wolf snails obliterated other snail species because its unique white shells allowed it to occupy the sunny forest fringes, something other snail species cannot tolerate.

Researchers Cindy Bick and Diarmaid Ó Fioghil measured how long the Michigan Micro Mote (M3) – considered the world’s smallest complete computer – took to recharge using solar power. The team discovered that at midday,

P. hyalina were receiving on average ten times more sunlight than the rosy wolf snails. They hypothesise that rosy wolf snails won’t venture to the edge of the forest – even at night – because they wouldn’t be able to escape before the sun became too hot.