Terminator Sparrows?

AstroPhilosopher writes "In a move not far removed from the model T-101, U.S. researchers have succeeded in re-animating a dead sparrow. Duke scientists were studying male behavior aggression among sparrows. They cleverly decided to insert miniaturized robotics into an empty sparrow carcass and operate it like a puppet (abstract). It worked; they noticed wing movements were a primary sign of aggression. Fortunately the living won out this time. The experiment stopped after the real sparrows tore off the robosparrow's head. But there's always a newer model on the assembly-line. Good luck sparrows." Bad Horse has not yet made a decision on the researchers' application.

Comments

Your seeds

[Hsien-Ko]

Give them to me.


Now

This is good news

[Anonymous Coward]

Even sparrows hate the undead. Those zombies are going down.

But, was it...

[Anonymous Coward]

an African or European swallow?

"Eventually the head fell off"

[Anonymous Coward]

The researchers, as quoted in the original article, describe the problem I've always had with re-animation:

"Eventually the head fell off"

Ex-Parrot

[Marillion]

Repeat experiment with parrots and ruin a perfectly good Monty Python skit.

Hey AstroPhilosopher

[gtirloni]

Good job trying to make everybody think researchers actually revived a dead bird.

This "news" would be as amusing as a 5 year-old "re-animating" his sockpuppet with Lego.

"Hey, check this out!"

[sdeath]

"... We wrapped a robot in a dead sparrow and decided to see if we could fool the other sparrows into interacting with our creepy, ghoulish automaton! It's *science*!"

And of course, it was COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED that the grisly abomination stapled to a tree branch triggered aggressive reactions from the other sparrows. Because every living thing JUST LOVES to be confronted with a soulless golem wrapped in the dead flesh of another of its kind. And that never causes pants-shitting terror or anything.

I can see it now:

Sparrow 1: "OH MY GOD! IS THAT... *THING* ... WEARING FRANK'S FACE? IS IT?! FRANK??!?!"
Sparrow 2: "It's not him anymore. IT'S! ...NOT! ...HIM! IT'S A MACHINE! Help me destroy it! Be his egg-layer one last time!"
Sparrow 1: "*snf* OK... OK... oh God, Frank... God help me..."

Yup. Science.

Is there, like, a review board or anything? Maybe that could screen some horror flicks before writing checks for this kind of bullshit? "New rule: If your study is substantially similar to the plot of any one of this library of 100 horror movies, or if it has a plausible chance of producing similar outcomes, we're not going to fund it."