Loek Van Der Klis / Flickr

Twenty-five years ago, artist Theo Jansen built a new life-form. Made of PVC pipes and zip ties, his strandbeest (Dutch for “beach beast”) walked along a beach under wind propulsion. Since then, Jansen has created many more beests and inspired a small army of imitators. “The perfect strandbeest is a specimen that lives on its own,” he says, “so I don’t have to think about it anymore.”

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This article was originally published in the November 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title “Sculptures with a Life of Their Own.”