In early February, in the database BioRxiv (a repository of preprints of scientific articles in the field of biological Sciences open access – approx. ed Techcult) was uploaded article about how a team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have turned an unsuspecting locust in bio-robots-sappers, implantiruut them to the brain electrodes.
Studies on the establishment of locusts cyborgs, able to detect explosives by smell, was funded by the US Navy command. The idea is that it will be much cheaper than to create from scratch a fully electronic analogue. The project was allocated 750 thousand dollars.
During the research, scientists have found that the senses of locusts react differently to the explosive and non-explosive substances. Their registered signals allowed to create a “unique multivariate signature” that distinguishes explosives from safe.
To bring the locusts to the desired location, put it in a tiny controlled wheeled robots. Once at the specified location, the insects within just a few hundred milliseconds detected the smell of hidden explosives.
Source — OneZero