Cyborg locusts with brain nanoparticles could act as bomb sniffers

Technology

Researchers wanting to make use of locusts’ keen sense of smell to sniff out certain chemicals have found that injecting their brains with nanoparticles seems to make odour identification more reliable

By Alex Wilkins

Locusts have a keen sense of smell

Stephen Dalton/Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Locusts with nanoparticles injected into their brains could be used as sniffing cyborg detectors for explosives or environmental contaminants.

Researchers have previously sought to utilise locusts’ powerful sense of smell by placing electrodes in their brains and recording the signals that occur when they sniff certain chemicals. However, the accuracy of these systems isn’t always reliable because each locust will have a slightly different electrode placement in its brain, so the…

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