Cyborg Beetles: And You Thought They Were Annoying Before

It's called a Giant Flower Beetle, and with a tiny little motherboard on it's head, with tiny little wires implanted in it's brain and muscles, scientists say that they can control it's movements AND officially spy on you. Big brother is here, no?

The University of California states that they used the flower beetle because it is one of the bigger flying insects and can hold a pretty big load on it's back. The beetles can be controlled wirelessly on a laptop to take off, land, fly left or right, and hovering. Using these beetles was the best choice, after many mediocre attempts with moths. The increased weight and flight power means that the beetles will be able to a camera, radio receiver, and more on it's back for any type of mission that it could be used, whether that be Search-And-Rescue, or pinpointing targets.

The beetle is already holding a processor, battery, and radio receiver to help command it's wirelessly sent signals. Electrical signals are sent from the laptop, and fed to the microprocessor on the beetles back, these signals are then sent down the electrodes that are implanted in the brain of the beetle, along with the muscles associated with movement, especially flying.

Now whether these beetles will be used for savior missions to help hostages, or injured people; or it's used for espionage are a long way away, I'm sure that the technology presented and utilized with these beetles can increase production and advancements in many realms, including military, health care, and everyday life.

We can create unmanned vehicles that will both help in wars and protect citizens and soldiers. It could help in the creation of better artificial hearts, lungs, veins, or even to help create a new type of pacemaker.

There are a million different ways that this technology can help our world, and in millions of different ways. This is one step that will both scare people, and put others in awe. When testing finally does happen on humans, though, will be years and years from now, and by that time it should be well enough studied to overcome most of the variables that we might encounter on our technological push forward.

Does this mean super-human soldiers? Being able to rebuilt a hand like Luke Skywalker? Or even increasing the reliability of non-emergency surgeries like plastic surgery? Only time will tell, but for now, we can watch videos of the Giant Flower Beetles in controlled flight from videos on Youtube!

News Story: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22039/?a=f
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAeV96bTRiI