Watch a cyborg cockroach navigate a maze

A CYBORG cockroach controlled by an electronic backpack, which attaches to its antennae and abdomen without injuring it, could be used for building inspections or search-and-rescue efforts. Electronically controllable cockroaches aren’t new, but all previous work has required invasive surgery to implant an electrode directly into the insect’s nervous system. As well as potentially causing pain, implantation can damage the cockroach and limit the amount of time that the electronic controls work to minutes or hours. Now, Hirotaka Sato at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues have developed flexible electronic sleeves that slip onto the cockroaches’ antennae and can deliver a signal to guide them in a certain direction. – Learn more ➤ [Delete if there’s no relevant article] Subscribe ➤ Get more from New Scientist: Official website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: LinkedIn: About New Scientist: New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human. New Scientist