Robot arms and grippers do important work every hour of every day. They’re used in production lines around the world, toiling virtually ceaselessly outside of their designated maintenance windows.

Scientists have literally reanimated dead spiders to do their bidding. In a new field dubbed “necrobotics,” researchers converted the corpses of wolf spiders into grippers that can manipulate objects.

If you think dead spider robots are something straight out of a horror movie (or your worst nightmares), I have some news for you. Mechanical engineers from Rice University have actually turned spider ...