




Near the surface, where waters are relatively warm, wax within a chamber melts and expands, producing a pumplike force that can push water between bladders. To ascend from frigid depths, fluid is pumped from an inner bladder to one outside. The vessel’s mass does not change, but its volume increases, bringing greater buoyancy. Back at the surface, pumps are recharged as wax melts and expands anew, even as fluid is drawn again to the inner bladder, reducing volume and slowly sinking the vessel again.
Fixed fins convert the rising and falling into forward momentum, just as a paper airplane’s wings make it glide forward when dropped. The six-foot craft travels about 1 mph, repeatedly bobbing up and then sinking to 4,000 feet as it goes, fueled by a temperature differential of about 43 degrees Fahrenheit. Instruments that can run on batteries for months gather data from the ocean and transmit to satellites with each surfacing.


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