Scientists have created a bionic dragonfly

Cyborg insects have become a reality today

Genetically modernized cyborg-dragonfly is one of the most tiny bionic robot in the world. Scientists conducted a series of experiments, the final chord of which were spent changing the live dragonfly, so they were able to manage it at a distance.

With the development of technology-driven drones, one of the biggest problems is the reduction of flying robots. The smaller drones, the better they will be suitable for the solution of practical purposes, will be able to enter a small space, or to be inconspicuous and secretive in those situations where the special services you need for someone to spy or something to find out, not advertising the fact of surveillance.

For help scientists turned to insects, to understand how creatures with tiny bodies produce enough energy to fly for a long time, while the mechanical microdrone working battery very quickly discharged and are unable to perform their duties.

A new experiment brings the study of insect flight to a new level, using themselves insects as unmanned aerial vehicles. So researchers from the lab of Charles stark Draper (Charles Stark Draper Laboratory) and the Medical Institute of Howard Hughes (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) submit a project DragonflEye, insanely futuristic dragonfly cyborg, which researchers have learned to control remotely.

DragonflEye was made on the basis of genetically modified dragonfly with the “control neurons” in the spinal cord of an insect, which sensitive to light. Tiny fiber optic device into the eyes of a dragonfly send light impulses to the brain, functionally controlling where the insect must fly with remote control.

Dragonfly also hung a backpack with miniature sensors and a small solar panel to energize the device for data collection. Theoretically, this dragonfly can be controlled by the researchers and will be able to collect data through its sensors from the environments that are not safe or hostile to humans.

Technology is simultaneously shocking and appalling, it is easy to imagine that such a genetically modified insect can become the perfect tool of espionage and data collection. People suffering from delusions of persecution, after such news might sadden even more. But what can you do, it’s a modern world and new technologies that will continue its development. You need to be prepared for that.

But this was only the beginning of a long journey. Advanced technology, for example, in the future will help to regain the joy of movement paralyzed people. And this is great progress! At this stage, scientists learned to fly a dragonfly in a rectilinear direction, but the awareness that the insect made a bionic robot, amazing. The potential here is huge, and we, the viewers need to wait and see the final result of this scientific adventure.