Insect Cyborg Engineering

By bcohen on March 21, 2008.

A public service announcement from The World's Fair.

"DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable bio-electromechanical interface to insects, as compared to adhesively bonded systems to adult insects. Once these platforms are integrated, various microsystem payloads can be mounted on the platforms with the goal of controlling insect locomotion, sense local environment, and scavenge power. Multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, and biologists are expected to work together to develop new technologies utilizing insect biology, while developing foundations for the new field of insect cyborg engineering. The HI-MEMS may also serve as vehicles to conduct research to answer basic questions in biology."

Deadline: April 17

Because we can, people.

Maybe.

Thanks to Beej for the notice. Shudder to think, we probably might've missed it otherwise.

More like this

Advertisment

Donate

ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. We are part of Science 2.0, a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access.

You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something.

Science 2.0

Science Codex

More by this author

The myopia of energy production: "Nothing will go wrong"

May 16, 2010

Me again. I once put up a post on the problems with trusting the safety of energy producing systems. The post was not well received; I see as I re-read the comments that I was particularly irritable about it. But I find the point I was trying to make way back when captured better in the…

#1: Cannonballs and the Meaning of Truth

December 24, 2009

"The world is full of light and life, and the true crime is not to be interested in it." A.S. Byatt "What seems a detour has a way of becoming, in time, a direct route." Richard Powers I had more fun doing this series than anything else in the past 3+ years here at the Fair. It was a unique…

#2: The Current Literature on Science: Author-meets-Blogger Series in Review

December 23, 2009

(Ten Best of the Decade from Half of the World's Fair) This series began with the kindness of a friend who agreed to let me ask him about his book about Barry Commoner, science, and modern environmentalism. It then spawned a series of 17 interviews with authors of books in science studies,…

#3: Landscape and Modernity (Ten Best of the Decade from Half of the World's Fair)

December 22, 2009

These never got formalized into an official series (not to demystify it too much, but that formalization process requires mostly that Dave make an icon to put on the sidebar). Nevertheless, they ended up as an eight-part set of posts about landscape art of various types. I'll put a representative…

#4: Science Showdown (Ten Best of the Decade from Half of the World's Fair)

December 21, 2009

This one was immense. It was also a dual effort (and not by "one of the guys" at the blog). Like the Puzzle Fantastica, this one is very difficult to re-post in its entirety. Luckily, Dave made a great graphic with links embedded to each game. I'll reprint the Press Center, then, which includes…