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Scientist Hacks A Bug

On his blog, Scientist Michel M. Maharbiz explained how he added a computer chip to the back of a bug to be able to use a remote control on it. He shared how he and his colleagues implanted several neural electrodes into the beetle’s nervous and muscular systems at its pupal stage so it was completely integrated by the time it emerged as a mecynorrhina torquata beetle.

You can even see a video of them turning the bug’s flying activity on and off.  Maharbiz admitted how the implants do not just control motor functions but actually tap into the nervous system and directly control movement and flight.  In other words, they totally hacked into this poor little bug!

“The implanted devices are designed to hijack control of motor functions, induce physiological changes, and to serve as a self-contained platform for various transducers,” writes Maharbiz.

I have felt like that little guy at different times in my life. The bug abuse video got the best of me, my empathy kicked into full swing, and I couldn’t resist exploring further to see if I had a new page for Facebook Causes: Stop Bug Abuse Now! Exploring led me to Stephen Ornes’ article in Discover.  He wrote:

With the mind of a machine and the nimble body of an insect, this bug-bot may be the perfect scout: inexpensive, expendable, and capable of surreptitious reconnaissance. The Berkeley researchers, led by Michael Maharbiz, note that beetles are strong enough to carry useful payloads, such as a miniature camera.

A Ha!  A CIA bug! Bug spying. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded this work. I should have known.

Wow. It gives a whole new meaning to “bugging an office.”

Watch the video here.

3 Comments on this Post

  1. Kim Molien

    I am similarly disturbed about experimentation on animals and bugs that involves this kind of thing. This does support a report by a woman in Los Angeles that she was stalked by what appeared to be a dragonfly, and on closer examination, was somekind of machine and someone somewhere was having a joke on her while she was going around talking about “ufo research”. That is she was exposing what are probably military projects – and intelligence decided to play with her. Why not just make the fake dragonfly types they’ve been making since the 1970’s research at Stanford Research Institute when physicists Puthoff and Targ were there (DARPA facility near Stanford, but not part of the university itself). It seems micro electronic “bugs” that fly well would be more in the interests of controlled research and humane treatment. Thing is…we don’t have as many good engineering designers today. Electronics engineering in the US has taken a dive in recent years due to outsourcing to China – along with our manufacturing. The US needs more in house engineering development and investment before we fall behind anymore.

    Reply
  2. Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.

    Reply
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