The Sea Urchin's Apprentice

2022​​

For 450 million years, sea urchins have played defense. They rely on long, sharp spines for protection from lobsters, crabs, otters, and sushi-loving humans. They get around only slowly, moving a few inches a day in search of algae and kelp.

Sea urchin engineers have finally had enough of that stuff. In secret, they have been prototyping a sea urchin apprentice superhero. They hope that, with proper training, it can lead them beyond their role as minor seafood.

 

This sculpture borrows from some of the sea urchin’s prototyping efforts to exhibit the principle of conditional stability. By moving its spines, the apprentice can quickly roll to a new position, then abruptly change rotation as moving spines shift the sum of forces beyond a stable point.

 

Fortunately, a few influential sea urchins have subscribed to the Disney channel and have seen the cautionary “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” short in the movie “Fantasia”. Trying to rise to power can be fraught with peril! How will their efforts turn out? It’s unclear, but without doubt they will all show some spine.