NeuroLove

I saw this and knew it was too cool not to share… a lab from North Carolina State University has figured out a way to basically control the movements of a cockroach.  As you can see in the video above, they can effectually get it to walk along a curved line pretty accurately.  There is a microcontroller that is connected the roach’s antennae and cerci (both of which are their sensors for the rest of the world).  The microcontroller basically just sends an electrical impulse onto the antennae or cerci, which makes the roach think it’s hitting a barrier, so it will move away from it.  You can then get it to move along a pathway by sending the appropriate signal to the appropriate body part.  A suggested use for this kind of technology is to search collapsed buildings for survivors (such as after an earthquake).  It’s a fairly impressive result from a logical idea.  For more information, see this article.