The grasshopper spiritually resembles traits and symbols of abundance, courage, achievement, happiness, intuition, patience, wealth, virtue, and longevity. Alongside the mystic aspects, like many other invertebrates, grasshoppers are known as insects with no backbone that have hard shells called the exoskeleton to protect their body. Grasshoppers receive sensory signals through organs located in various parts of their body, including their antennae, and palps on the head, cerci on the abdomen, and receptors on the legs. More specifically, grasshoppers have prominent olfactory receptors located on their antennae, which they use to sniff for food and predators.
Biomedical engineers from Washington University in St Louis selected the American grasshopper as the subject to their experimentation due to its favorable olfactory system. The receptors in the grasshopper’s sophisticated olfactory system transmits 50,000 neurons to the part of their brain called the antennal lobe. According to one professor associated with Washington University’s biomedical research, the grasshopper is more suitable for detecting explosives than any other device. After implanting electrodes into the brains of grasshoppers, the enhanced grasshoppers could detect and distinguish explosives correctly for several hours. A single grasshopper was able to detect explosives with an accuracy of 60%, and a group of seven grasshoppers had an average accuracy of 80%.
This experiment demonstrates that biological olfactory systems can be utilized to develop a cyborg chemical sensing approach. This study, funded by the US Office of Naval Research, is possibly the first step to the distribution of cyborg grasshoppers for homeland security purposes. This means we can feasibly witness a swarm of grasshoppers with olfactory weapons that deploy a scene of bomb threats in the future.
References: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/02/cyborg-grasshopper-engineered-to-sniff-explosives/
Tugba Kahveci (2)
I found your post interesting because this is actually a real story. Its cool to think that science has advanced this far as to give something the ability of a heightened olfactory sense.
ReplyDelete- Brianna Bailey
DeleteHi Brianna, yes I agree that it is fascinating to see how science has advanced enough to enhance biological characteristics in organisms.
Delete- Tugba K
Hi! Great article! I was wondering if they have done any testing to see how the grasshopper as this could be a great asset to the military. Thanks, Sarah Conant
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah, yes actually the article I obtained my information from was in fact a study funded by the government for the purpose of investigating the contributions to military these grasshoppers may provide.
Delete- Tugba K
I think it is interesting that this could be a replacement for the current system of bomb sniffing dogs. The benefits of grasshoppers could include their being seen as a lesser animals so their deaths mean less. I wonder if this was part of the purpose for choosing an insect as the bomb detectors, seeing as how humans place much less value on the lives of invertebrates.
ReplyDelete-William Sobchuk
Hi William, according to the article I obtained my information, grasshoppers were chosen mostly for their favorable olfactory system, however, I do think it is a better idea to sacrifice these insects rather than sniffing dogs.
Delete- Tugba K
Hello Tugba, I loved your opening sentence. It really drew my attention in and I wanted to know how grasshoppers in mystic beliefs would correlate to modern day needs. I think this post was very insightful and it made me think about if hundreds of grasshoppers were used, can the detection rate improve?
ReplyDelete-Kristina Baldeo