Roland Piquepaille writes, "According to a news release from Purdue University, civil engineers, who deal with statics, and mechanical engineers, who deal with kinematics, have unified their efforts to create dual theorems which combine the mathematics of both kinematics and statics. In other words, they've shown that these concepts are in fact analogous. By applying these new theorems, it should be possible to design better automotive transmissions or new classes of "multiple-platform" robots which "maintain their strength even when damaged or otherwise compromised." Apparently the "multiple-platform" robots are two or more small robots that combine into one larger robot when needed (you know, like when the Constructicons combine themselves to form Devastator). The news release is a little vague on what these "new theorems" are but a paper describing them in detail will be published shortly. Some idea of what they're talking about might be had from an older paper (PDF format) by the same authors. For more, see Roland's blog.