A Pentagon-sponsored project to control flying insects remotely has sent ripples of excitement across the scientific pond.
Part insect, part machine, the “cyborg beetle” has been tested successfully by its developers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Video footage shows a beetle being “flown” around a room by a man using a laptop.
At one point it is tethered to a transparent plastic plate, and its tiny limbs can be seen twitching in response to the operator’s joy stick.
The developers, Michel Maharbiz and Hirotaka Sato, “demonstrated the remote control of insects in free flight via an implantable radio-equipped miniature neural stimulating system”, they told the current edition of Frontiers in Neuroscience magazine.
Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the UK’s Sheffield University, says that while attempts to control insects such as cockroaches are not new, this is the first time man has managed to remotely control a flying insect.
What intrigues him is the Berkeley project’s ultimate military application. Read more…
Biotech, Sci/tech, Technology
Biotech, Sci/tech, Technology
A ribosome reads an mRNA sequence and produces protein according to its genetic code. Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
From: Wired.Com
By Aaron Rowe
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three molecular biologists who study ribosomes, the protein factories within cells.
Ribosomes were discovered in the 1950’s by George Palade, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the makeup of cells, but scientists weren’t able to take a close look at those organelles till the end of the century. Thomas Steitz, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, and Ada Yonath developed tricks for examining the tiny structures with x-rays and electron beams. The high-resolution 3D images they acquired will help chemists develop a host of better medications.
“Scientists around the world are using the winners’ research to develop new antibiotics that can be used in the ongoing battle against antibiotic-resistant microbes that cause so much illness, suffering and death.” said Thomas Lane, president of the American Chemical Society, in a press release. Read more…
Biology, Biotech, Medicine
Biology, Biotech, Medicine
