Latest news with #beetles
The Sun
08-07-2025
- Science
- The Sun
How remote-controlled cyborg BEETLES with microchip backpacks could help save lives in horror disasters
James Halpin Published: Invalid Date, REMOTE-controlled cyborg beetles wearing microchip backpacks could be used to save lives in horror disasters. Two boffins at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia, are building the smallest search and rescue team. 6 6 They say the plan could cut the time it takes to find someone trapped under rubble from days to hours. The darkling beetles (Zophobas morio) can be controlled with video game controllers if they are fitted with the chips, Dr Thang Vo-Doan and Research Assistant Lachlan Fitzgerald have found. The chips shock the beetles into moving in a certain direction by stimulating the insect's antenna or hardened forewings known as elytrons. So far, they've been able to move the cyborg bugs side-to-side and up vertical walls. Dr Vo-Doan said: "Beetles possess many natural gifts that make them the masters of climbing and manoeuvring in small, complex spaces such as dense rubble, that are difficult for robots to navigate. "Our work harnesses these gifts and adds programmable controls that allow for precise directional guidance, without affecting the lifespan of the beetle." The science is being done by a team of researchers at the Biorobotics lab in UQ's School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, who hope to test the technology in a live situation within five years. Fitzgerald said: "While robots at this scale have made strides in locomotion, the transition from horizontal surfaces to walls remains a formidable challenge for them. "This difficulty arises from the need for active foot pads, soft environmental interactions, and sophisticated sensing capabilities - all things that our cyborg insects possess naturally that allows them to access any area that is required in a disaster environment." Dr Vo-Doan said while a tethered power supply had been used for the climbing test, the beetles were able to climb with a battery equivalent to its own body weight. Watch as Frankenstein cyborg cockroaches fitted with backpacks come to life to form army of search & rescue bugs The team is next working on cameras and a compact and efficient power system to enhance the beetle's mobility and versatility. Dr Vo-Doan said: "If people have been trapped under an extensive amount of rubble, you want to be able to find them as quickly as possible and start planning how to get them out. "We hope to produce a tool that can easily move through chaotic environments to pinpoint a person's exact location, provide clues to any injuries, and give rescuers a picture of what needs to be done to free them". The cyborgs also use a minimal amount of power on each run compared with miniaturised robots that are currently being modelled. 6 6 It's not the first time that beetles have been fitted with backpacks and used for search and rescue. Scientists in China built beetles that wore backpacks and could be controlled remotely - but which also could test for carbon dioxide poisoning. Boffins have also created a similar set of cyborg cockroaches. Stuck on the back of real-life Madagascan hissing cockroaches, the chip sits on a panel that uses an infrared camera and a series of sensors to collect and send data to first responders. The original idea for the hero insects comes from Professor Hirotaka Sato. He witnessed the devastation caused by the 2011 Japanese earthquake first-hand and quickly realised there needed to be a faster and more effective way of finding survivors and victims. He said: 'Our motivation is purely to use this technology for search and rescue. To save people from disaster.' 6
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Most bugs can't see red—but these beetles can
Most insects have evolved to see the blue, green, and even ultraviolet spectrums. But most insects have trouble parsing one hue in particular: red. Even bees and other pollinators that visit traditionally vibrant poppies aren't attracted by the visible coloration, but by the UV light reflected from their petals. Now, an international zoology team has discovered that some insect species can manage to see what their relatives cannot. According to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, at least two beetle species living in the eastern Mediterranean environments can actually see red. 'To our knowledge, we are the first to have experimentally demonstrated that beetles can actually perceive the color red,' said Johnnes Spaethe, paper co-author and chair of zoology at Germany's University of Würzburg. Both Pygopleurus chrysonotus and Pygopleurus syriacus are small, fuzzy beetles that belong to the Glaphyridae family, and mostly feed on pollen from red flowering plants like buttercups, anemones, and poppies. This led researchers to wonder how they developed their preferences. The team utilized a number of methods to determine the two beetles weren't traveling to the red flowers simply due to a UV sensory situation similar to bees. After using a combination of color trapping, behavioral experiments, and electrophysiology, Spaethe and colleagues clearly showed each species includes four types of photoreceptors in their retinas. Aside from UV light, the bugs are able to process blues, greens, and deep reds—although field observations indicated the insects used true color vision to identify and visit red flowers.'The prevailing opinion in science is that flower colors have adapted to the visual systems of pollinators over the course of evolution,' explained Spaethe. The team's latest findings may complicate this theory, however. In addition to Pygopleurus, two other genera in the larger beetle family (Eulasia and Glaphyrus) display widely different color preferences including red, white, violet, and yellow. This suggests the ability to see red—as well as nature's many other colors—may be relatively more malleable than previously thought.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How to Open a Hole
I don't know how the beetles got in. Landed like plums rolling off a cloud, soft erasers inside their mouths, my dreams were first to go. Siphoned out via bullet holes, like honeybees smoked out their hive, chorus of black lines, burned thick and dark, gilded grill marks, hexagon honey stuck to their eyes, there are six sides to loneliness. Ballistic blowfly, visions of parallel lives, you hide, what you hold. Blind to the brilliance, I died with my eyes at an angle to my skull. Said I'd be right back. Nevermore. Mounds of dirt, oh ants, no one I love, should find me here. Never had I felt the hardened wings of sudden flight, mid-run, door turned cold-angled cliff. Duck-duck, goose. Pluck a hole in the circle's skin. Black rip in a bag. This is where memories turn corners. Finger tucked around a crescent moon, light splits and splices the room, disconnects the dots, casts a constellation onto sheetrock. Article originally published at The Atlantic
The Review Geek
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Revenge of the Savage Planet Guide: 'My First Rodeo' Walkthrough
Mission List (Tap to jump down the page!) My First Rodeo My First Rodeo is one of the sub-missions as part of That Has My Name On It, and it involves obtaining the Proton Whip to progress. If you'd rather read the full guide for the entire mission, you can do so by clicking HERE! My First Rodeo Back to top ↑ If you haven't scanned a Beetle or Fecal Beetle yet, the game should automatically prompt you to go and grab this next item simply through story progression, but if it doesn't, go and scan the beetle to make sure this part of the mission pops. We now need to progress much further north than we have done before on Stellaris Prime. This Proton Whip that we're after can be used to destroy, not just growths on the back of beetles, but also blocked walls like this one (pictured below). If you survey the area nearby, the game does, on occasion, prompt to where your destination is located and in this instance, it's high up to the east in the acidic jungle section. There's a Teleporter nearby so be sure to activate this before hopping over the orange mushrooms. At the end of the path, make sure you have you Hose equipped. Aim for the bulb at the base of the tree (pictured above) and hit it with water. This will cause it to expand out into a platform. Use your double jump after hitting the first platform and then progress up the tree, being sure to look up whenever a bulb is located to make more platforms. There Are also Amber-spitting flowers here, which can be destroyed by spraying them with water, along with green blobs that ca be eliminated in the same way too. Once you reach the top of the platforms, you'll find the crate covered in green goo. Use your Hose to wash off the dirt, then hit Square (X) to open it up and gain the Proton Whip. This will be equipped immediately, and it will also complete this part of the mission too.
