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Rescue Rats to Find Buried Victims
adaminnj writes "Rats are being trained to sniff out the buried victims of earthquakes and bomb blasts and could be sent to search for survivors in the same way as dogs. The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people, but they have the advantage of being able to crawl almost anywhere and slip through small holes and crevices. Like dogs, they also have a highly acute sense of smell. But to be successful rescuers, they must be able to home in on victims and signal their position to waiting rescue teams."
talk about being ratted out
And if the person is dead, eat them, thus saving costly search 'n' find excursion parties.
To me, the most interesting thing about this is how they "train rats to feel pleasure at the smell of humans", then monitor their brains for any pleasure stimulus.
But what happens when they come running to find that the rat has uncovered the world's largest cache of underground cheese?
Love the Third Amendment?
"Hurrah! A rat, something to eat and drink at last!
Dunno what this transmitter thing is, must have got trapped around the creature somewhere..."
..trapped under 12 feet of concrete rubble, not being able to move, and a rat is gnawing at your face...
oh joy
The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people
I bet it'd appeal more to most people than 'don't be rescued' though...
Rats can also be used to search for buried mines. You might want to read this interesting NYT article about it. It was featured on slashdot some months ago, IIRC.
This reminds me of an article that was pinned up in the copy room at Lucent in Allentown a while ago about rats that had been trained to run telecom and network cables through existing ductwork in schools. It was quite a few years ago so I forget the specifics, but it looked rather cool. Google has been unhelpful for the moment, but I'm still searching for more information.
PepperHacks - Hacking the Pepper Pad
I've heard of stuff like this before.
I read of a project that was training weasels, or maybe ferrets, something in that family for the same type of thing. They're naturally curious, able to squeeze through unimaginable spots, etc.
The weasels were big enough to strap a little camera and transmitter to, and the idea was that they'd just go everywhere in the rubble.. Their natural curiosity would handle that part.
Them biting/eating victims (another natural instinct) was a problem. So the rescue critters would be "de-fanged", or rather have their teeth filed down when it was time to actually go to work. This of course, cripples the animal for the rest of it's life but the logic is "we sacrifice a couple of chinchillas to save one human life and it's worth it".
Of course, PETA and the like threw a fit. But even "animal lovers" look the other way when it comes to rats.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!