Researchers Remotely Control Cockroaches With Electronic Backpack
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Oh, wow.
The Madagascar hissing cockroach pictured (Gromphadorhina Portentosa) is actually far from gross or unclean, quite the contrary is the case. They like it clean and they're pretty much the ultimate hippie jumbo roach.
They display quite some social interaction, going from non-lethal competitive battling of the males to dominant butt-lifting and the sheer fact that the females let the babies hatch inside their bodies to protect them better easily boggles the mind. How did they come up with that one? Here's me eggs, lads, get some spunk on'em. T'a. Babies... coming up soon now.
It's one of the more amazing organisms around, really.
Plus, you can feed them all your veggie kitchen scraps, and they'll gladly eat dog food or pick any and all bones clean you throw at them... and they're generally very thorough when it involves eating. A good breeding stock will easily replace or at the very least improve your compost heap.
Their poop can be used to inoculate soil and keep your plants happy and healthy.
They might not lug big brains around like we do, but they deserve our respect. It is highly unlikely our species will make it as long as they already did up to... now.
Oh, and they are very pleasant and quite amusing pets. And if you don't like the idea of them being pets, you can still feed them to a wide range of animals with no mess, no smell, no drama.
The Madagascar hissing cockroach pictured (Gromphadorhina Portentosa) is actually far from gross or unclean, quite the contrary is the case. They like it clean and they're pretty much the ultimate hippie jumbo roach.
They display quite some social interaction, going from non-lethal competitive battling of the males to dominant butt-lifting and the sheer fact that the females let the babies hatch inside their bodies to protect them better easily boggles the mind. How did they come up with that one? Here's me eggs, lads, get some spunk on'em. T'a. Babies... coming up soon now.
It's one of the more amazing organisms around, really.
Plus, you can feed them all your veggie kitchen scraps, and they'll gladly eat dog food or pick any and all bones clean you throw at them... and they're generally very thorough when it involves eating. A good breeding stock will easily replace or at the very least improve your compost heap.
Their poop can be used to inoculate soil and keep your plants happy and healthy.
They might not lug big brains around like we do, but they deserve our respect. It is highly unlikely our species will make it as long as they already did up to... now.
Oh, and they are very pleasant and quite amusing pets. And if you don't like the idea of them being pets, you can still feed them to a wide range of animals with no mess, no smell, no drama.
Hey, look! Full quote!M-E-D The Poet said:
This is just to let you know that, sorry, you got it all wrong. I really mean all wrong.
Yo! WT??
Roaches are adorable and very, very cleanly. Most roaches aren't happy with filthy people around. If anything, most roach species actually do their best to clean up after super filthy humans.
When you squash a (cock)roach you kill it. Their eggs aren't magical.
(cock)Roaches have been around for at least 350 million years. When the first dinosaurs popped up, roaches have already been at it for an easy 150 million years... maybe even longer, who knows. They came up with the very concept of flight. They came up with what could easily be understood as pregnancy, instead of going for the rather retarded concept of pooping out eggs and let God sort'em out. There are at least 3'500 different roach species out there, and only about 2% of those are able and willing to put up with us filthy, smelly humans. Get your facts straight, thank you.
I can just imagine the professer's thoughts when he was making this thing:faefrost said:
"Today, I mind control cockroaches, tomorrow, the ENTIRE WORLD!!!"
No they are not, its a scientifically proven fact that they carry and spread pathogens like various food poisoning bacteria. Some of those bacteria can be lethal. There is also scientific evidence that shows cockroaches carrying antibiotic resistant bacteria like MRSA.Headdrivehardscrew said:
Bacteria can survive in cockroach feces for several years, long after the roach that left them there is dead or the infestation removed. Other research suggests that roaches might cause asthma or aggravate allergies, the cockroach's feces, saliva, eggs, and outer covering they leave behind cause the problem. They become a part of the every day household dust, once that happens people either breath them in or ingest them after the dust contaminates food or cutlery, cups and plates. Studies show that anywhere from 7.5% to 28% of people exposed to those materials develop allergies
I think you and I, we're both guilty of generalizing a bit.J Tyran said:
Thing is, we're talking of some 4500 species, only an approximate 30 of which actually don't seem to mind to mingle with humans, feed on rat feces and play poop games all day. For what it's worth, evolution had its ways by throwing us and our filthy ways in the mix, offering more opportunity and structures that favour creepy crawlies, making them take up bad habits and dropping any and all inhibitions and having a great impact on that five-brain-powered free will of theirs. It's mostly all about feeding, mating and procreating. The good life, y'know.
I won't delve much into 'scientifically proven facts', as for every study you could possibly bring up, I have at least one to counter it. Sad as it is, that's the state of science today.
Instead, have this:
Biologists at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, found dramatic variations in a cockroaches learning ability throughout the day. In the morning, the insects couldn't learn a new task, but in the evening, something kicked in.
"This is the first example of an insect whose ability to learn is controlled by its biological clock," Terry L. Page, professor of biological sciences, said on Friday.
"This study was a surprise from the beginning to the end --the fact that cockroaches could be trained, even though you would not generally say they are a high IQ creature, and the impact that their body clocks had on their ability to learn."
During the two-year study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers taught cockroaches to associate peppermint -- a scent that the critters normally dislike -- with sugar water so that they favored it over one of their favorite smells, vanilla.
Both are generalizations for sure, you meant all roaches and I meant the ones most likely to infest homes. Those ones are pretty much the same as flies, they will eat or walk over almost anything and then spread the bacteria they pick up as a result.Headdrivehardscrew said:
The cockroach itself isn't inherently dirty its just that its living and eating habits put it contact with a lot of pathogens that are harmful to humans.
I'm not really sure there is much difference between this and breaking a horse. It's not as if the horse was designed to start and stop with a person on its back but there we were, poking the horse and pulling on the reins to control it.
now, if the device was directly jammed into their brains, maybe it's unethical?
now, if the device was directly jammed into their brains, maybe it's unethical?
They've actually been able to remote control cockroaches for years now. About 10 years ago I saw a documentary on this where they showed a cockroach attached over a ball with arrows on it so you could see the changes of direction.
Another thing they did more recently was give a cockroach an "exoskeleton" to give it more presence in a room xD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZD59Ic9T8
I'm in no doubt that the secret services have pushed to get roaches with cameras etc.
Another thing they did more recently was give a cockroach an "exoskeleton" to give it more presence in a room xD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZD59Ic9T8
I'm in no doubt that the secret services have pushed to get roaches with cameras etc.