The Cyborg Beetle
Man has yet to master nature, but now he can make it turn
left. Armed with funding from the Pentagon's research wing,
an engineering team at the University of California, Berkeley,
has devised a method of remotely controlling the flight of
beetles. By attaching radio antennas and embedding electrodes
in the insects' optic lobes, flight muscles and brains, professors
Michel Maharbiz and Hirotaka Sato can manipulate their subjects
into taking off, hovering in midair and turning on command.
The trick? Wirelessly delivering jolts to a microbattery fastened
to a circuit board atop the hapless insects, whose agility
and capacity to tote valuable payloads could make the tiny
creatures the ultimate fly on the wall.
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