Loons, gulls, puffins, and petrels are some of the 100 species of birds that can both fly and swim. These diving birds can plunge in water to swim after prey, and leap back into the air to fly away.
Picture a seabird diving into a lake, chasing fish underwater, then bursting back into the sky without breaking stride. Engineers at MIT and EPFL just built a robot that swims and flies just like that ...