Could cyborg locusts be the bomb-sniffing dogs of the future?
電子蝗蟲能成為未來的炸彈嗅探犬嗎?
Scientists who received funding from the US Navy revealed last week that they were able to program the bugs to sense various different smells, including from explosives.
上週，從美國海軍獲得資助的科學家們透露，他們能夠對這些臭蟲進行編程，使它們能夠感知各種不同的氣味，包括炸藥的氣味。
The team’s preprint research paper, published in BioRxiv, states that the insects have been used to detect gases released by substances such as ammonium nitrate – often used by terrorist groups for bomb-making – as well as military explosives TNT and RDX.
該小組在BioRxiv上發表的預印本研究報告稱，這些昆蟲已被用來檢測由硝酸銨等物質釋放的氣體，這些物質通常被恐怖組織用來製造炸彈，以及軍事炸藥TNT和RDX。
The robot-bound locusts were exposed to five different explosives and it only took 500 milliseconds of exposure for a distinct pattern of activity to appear in the locusts’ brains. The scientists chose locusts because their tiny antennae are filled with about 50,000 olfactory neurons.
被機器人束縛的蝗蟲被暴露在五種不同的爆炸物中，僅僅500毫秒後，它們的大腦中就出現了一種截然不同的活動模式。科學家選擇蝗蟲是因為它們的小觸角充滿了大約5萬個嗅覺神經元。
Researchers chose locusts because they are sturdy and can carry heavy payloads, according to the preprint paper. They implanted electrodes into the insects’ brains to analyze their neural activity when they were around different substances.
根據預印本，研究人員選擇蝗蟲是因為它們很結實，可以攜帶沉重的貨物。他們將電極植入昆蟲的大腦，分析它們在不同物質周圍時的神經活動。
The US Office of Naval Research had allocated $750,000 for the project back in 2016.
早在2016年，美國海軍研究辦公室就為該項目撥款75萬美元。
Although the team has not commented about its new work, lead scientist Baranidharan Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University at St. Louis, expressed optimism when he received the grant.
儘管該團隊還沒有對他們的新工作發表評論，但首席科學家巴拉尼德哈蘭·拉曼，聖路易斯華盛頓大學工程與應用科學學院生物醫學工程副教授，在收到這項資助時表示樂觀。
“We expect this work to develop and demonstrate a proof-of-concept, hybrid locust-based, chemical-sensing approach for explosive detection,” Raman told The Source.
拉曼告訴《消息來源》:“我們希望這項工作能夠發展和演示一種概念驗證、基於蝗蟲的混合化學傳感方法，用於爆炸物探測。”
閱讀更多 雅思全知道 的文章
