11/10/2014
Wired Cockroaches Could Help Find Trapped Disaster Victims
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed tiny microphones that can be attached to the back of cockroaches to pick up particular sounds, like someone's voice, to help locate disaster victims. Researchers control the roach "biobots" by wiring bugs' antennae and cerci, the sensory organs in the bugs' abdomen.
■Class discussion: Do you think it is ethical to turn cockroaches into biobots? What about wiring up dogs or dolphins to turn them into remotely controlled weapons? How have animals been used for carrying bombs in the past? Could ongoing brain-to-brain communication experiments ever lead to the development of human biobots?
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