When Locusts Attack

Re:Not only them... by cduffy · 2000-10-09 06:58 · Score: 2

Would they?

Can't speak for anyone else... but I'd lose my legs if it would save lives.

Yup, a keychain. by cduffy · 2000-10-09 07:15 · Score: 2

Read the article -- apparently a keychain's jingle includes ultrasound compotents to which they were testing the locust's response. They didn't expect it to be attracted rather than repelled, though.

Re:locusts driving cars? by sjames · 2000-10-08 23:02 · Score: 2

Is this how prostheses work nowadays anyway? Say you just lost your hand. Your brain still sends impulses to that missing hand as though it were there. You can slap a few electrodes on your stump and re-learn how to control a new fake hand.

More or less, but the interface is primitive at best. Typically, the hand can be opened and closed and the wrist rotated. While the better ones can apply user controled variable pressure, there's no feedback. A direct connect could allow for independant fingers, finer control and some sensory feedback. Part of that depends on improved understanding of how nerve impulse characteristics translate into sensation and movement.

Re:I forsee... by sjames · 2000-10-08 23:05 · Score: 2

because in the future we will steer our cars by clenching our butt cheeks left and right.

That could add a whole new world of meaning to 'silent but deadly'

Re:locusts driving cars? by sjames · 2000-10-09 22:36 · Score: 2

There is feedback, with the newer prosthetics they can feel temperature differences, they can also feel differing textures of objects.

I've seen the ones that give temperature feedback, I hadn't seen the ones that give texture feedback. Can they give pressure feedback as well?

A lot of science is done for fun. by Derek+Pomery · 2000-10-08 21:58 · Score: 2

That doesn't mean legitimate research isn't being done.
In the case of this article, the researchers said that it is to study the insect's reaction to ultra low frequencies. I would imagine the car makes the insect move in a sufficiently slow and obvious fashion for humans to observe.

Did you notice that, contrary to their expectations, the locust moved *towards* the jangling keys?

Things like that could be important, given how much of a menace locusts are in some parts of the world.

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-- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.

Global warming by Pseudonymus+Bosch · 2000-10-08 19:23 · Score: 2

I was concerned about what would happen to our environment if every Chinese would be given a car.

Now I am concerned about locusts!
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Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu

Re:Not only them... by Troy+Roberts · 2000-10-08 22:16 · Score: 2

I think your reaction is a little strang. People regularly spray poisons to kill locus. They are killed by the millions. People step on them, swat them, ..... kill them in a myriad of ways. and what you want to complain about is a couple of guys having fun and doing research. Well, more power to you, but I think there are many more important things to worry about.

Troy

Re:Sad by pen · 2000-10-08 19:51 · Score: 2

Lighten up! They're jokes. Do you get this worked up when someone tells you a joke that portrays all lawyers as greedy and insensitive? You shouldn't get offended at these unless they are actually meant to be offensive.

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Not only them... by Angst+Badger · 2000-10-08 14:02 · Score: 5

Somewhere, there's a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects getting all riled up.

Well, I think a lot of the stances taken by PETA are silly, but this does seem a little mean in the sense of kid-pulling-wings-off-fly mean. If there's a legitimate scientific goal ---

And... if you're wondering why... M.E.L. was built for the fun of it.

--- but in this case, there's not. Maiming animals for fun, even a lowly insect, is the kind of uncool behavior that makes it difficult for real scientists with legitimate and worthy goals to perform research. It's getting hard enough to perform experiments for things like life-saving medical research without thoughtless boobs like these autogenerating propaganda for the more reactionary elements within the animal rights movements.

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Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.

Re:Not only them... by Richy_T · 2000-10-08 17:14 · Score: 2

I don't think the bug gives a rats ass whether or not you think it's justified to rip it apart. If ripping your legs off could be to the benefit of 'legitimate life-saving medical research', would you let them?
Well, unless there's some more weirdy experiments in wiring insects up to web browsers, I don't think the poster was a bug so your question is absurd.
Rich
Re:Not only them... by Richy_T · 2000-10-10 05:33 · Score: 2

Except I wouldn't call "Not in my species" arbitrary.
Rich

PETA would be upset by Barbarian · 2000-10-08 14:18 · Score: 3

From this recent kuro5hin discussion, PETA themselves would get upset about this.

Err, I guess the PETA we're talking about is here.

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Bird in a model airplane by ch-chuck · 2000-10-08 18:13 · Score: 2

I've always wanted to build a radio control model airplane, preferably with an electric motor, and somehow strap in (comfortably) a parakeet, and fly it around. Talk about putting legs on a snake...

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try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }

That's twisted by qnonsense · 2000-10-08 12:36 · Score: 2

That's really some twisted stuff. Don't tell PETA.

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There comes a time in every man's life when he must say, "No mother! I do not want any more Jell-O!"

Future uses of this technology by leereyno · 2000-10-08 14:41 · Score: 2

I'd like to see what would happen if this type of experiment were performed on human males.

Attach sensors to certain mucles umm.. down below. Use these sensors to control the direction and speed of a little go cart type device which the man would be sitting in.

Have attractive women walk into the room and see how fast they'd get run over.

Lee Reynolds

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Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.

Re:Imagine if it was you... by The+Queen · 2000-10-08 19:21 · Score: 2

Or you could be stuck in a canister and taught how to fly!

The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk

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The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series

Re:Imagine if it was you... by Field+Marshall+Stack · 2000-10-08 22:14 · Score: 2

It sure would be a bizzare expierence to have your legs ripped off, electrodes stuck in, and finding yourself attached to a giant car, 10 times your height, which you could then drive by thinking about walking...

Oh sweet mother of fuck, YES. This _is_ in fact exactly what I want. Okay, if you could do it without ripping off my legs, that'd be cool, but even if you've got to take that sort of Extreme Measure, I WANT MY GIANT ROBOT

It's the YEAR 2000. It's practically the FUTURE. But I've got no rocket car, no vampiric machine-based immortality, no SHINY SILVER JUMPSUIT with GOLDFISH BOWL HELMET, no NANOTECH ASSEMBLERS, no giant robots, no NOTHING.

Remember folks, there's NO PROBLEM that can't be solved by robots of the appropriate size.

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"HORSE."

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"HORSE."
-Flaming Carrot

Re:What's the big deal ? by Kintanon · 2000-10-08 21:28 · Score: 2

I don't really understand what the big deal is about this piece of expiriment/research. We all know that locusts don't fly into anything except lights and windows. They just tapped the signal the insect uses to steer... They could have used any other insect/animal that has some intelligence about direction and tapped it's muscles. The tapping of muscles is not new.

I think a useful option might be using ants because ants have a tendency to follow a sort of 'invisible path' left by the ant(s) before him -the ants leave some sort of chemical-. This could be used to steer vehicles along a certain path and that could be quite useful for unmanned vehicles in factories etc. . Although I'm not sure how an ant would respond to travelling at 30 km/h instead of 1 km/h ?

ok, let's see YOU plug an electrode into an ants ass.... Go ahead, try it!
The reason the used Locusts was clearly explained on the site if you had bothered to read it. Their nervous system is accesible (and the electrodes aren't bigger than the target organism).

Kintanon