If you’re paranoid, now might be a good time to head to the bunker, as the US Government reveals it can build remote-controlled, cyborg beetles.
Those brain-boxes at UC Berkley have figured out a way to make nature conform to their every whim; well a very small part of nature at least. By wiring up a beetle with tiny electrodes that stimulate the muscles in its wings, the researchers are able to effectively steer the beetle via remote control.
“We demonstrated the remote control of insects in free flight via an implantable radioequipped miniature neural stimulating system,” the team reported in a paper titled Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. “The pronotum mounted system consisted of neural stimulators, muscular stimulators, a radio transceiver-equipped microcontroller and a microbattery.”
What’s a little scary about this story however is that DARPA, also known as Defense Advanced Research Prohects Agency, has funded this research. Next thing you know, it’ll be building giant bipedal robots that can stealth launch nuclear weapons or something!
Source: Dvice
Published: Sep 27, 2009 06:48 pm