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Navy experimenting with 'cyborg locusts' to find explosives

August 28, 2020 at 1:50AM
Researchers showed how they were able to hijack a locust's olfactory system to both detect and discriminate between different explosive scents — another step in the direction toward bomb-sniffing locusts. (Raman Lab/TNS) ORG XMIT: 1747252
Researchers are hijacking a locust’s olfactory system to detect explosive scents (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Call the SWAT team.

Bomb-sniffing "cyborg locusts" could be the next wave in national security, said military news agency Stars and Stripes.

Washington University researchers, funded by the U.S. Navy, said locusts can differentiate between TNT, ammonium nitrate and other bomb-making materials, and locate their origins almost immediately.

Locusts are known to have a well-honed sense in their antennae, but scientists weren't certain the bugs could detect objects that are foreign to their natural environment.

Biomedical engineering professor Barani Raman and his team's $1.1 million study found that apparently they can. "They can pick up some of these odors at extremely low concentrations,"Raman said.

If scientists can better understand locusts, they might be able to develop swarms of artificial "electronic noses" superior to what's being used to search for explosives now, Stars and Stripes said.

Because of the simple nature of a bug's brain, researchers are able to implant technologies that record what locusts smell and how it translates.

The study found American locusts worked better in teams than they did as individuals. A swarm of seven locusts reportedly turned up positive results 80% of the time. That number dropped by 20% when a single locust was put on the job.

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about the writer

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News

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