Re: RC Bugs

Johnny Carwash (carwash@infobahnos.com)
Thu, 08 May 1997 22:30:06 -0400


At 09:42 pm 5/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>I heard something exciting on the radio: some Japanese scientists
apparently have
>elaborated a neural interface to cockroaches' brains. They plan on using the
>(remote-controlled?) bugs to inspect places where humans can't go.
>
>Does someone have any more information on this particular case or on neural
interfaces
>in general?

Yes ..
Last summer I attended a program at McGill University, here in Montreal,
for high school students interested in science. We visited various
scientific departments, as well as sites off campus. One of the dept's we
visited was I believe physiology or biology, where they were doing
experiments with snails. Since snails are myogenic, meaning their organs
still function outside of their body, they actually had a snail, minus skin,
splayed out on a sheet of lucite, still quite alive. They said that snails
have a very small amount of neurons (like under 1000), it would be possible
to create a remote controll snail.
What's interesting about this is that small organisms with simple brains can
have some very advanced structures (like dragonflies' eyes) so it would be
possible to interface those biological apparatti to computers...
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