4 ms·

Cyborg dragon-fly Has Liftoff

9 points by loppers92 9y ago

peeters 9y ago
What does "liftoff" actually mean here? From the video all I could tell was they taped a tiny circuit to a dragonfly and then let it fly away. Were they controlling the insect? Did the circuit do anything useful? Or was the milestone that they managed to get that little backpack on the dragonfly in the first place?
- fudged71 9y ago
  "DragonflEye [...] create new optogenetic tools that send guidance commands from the backpack to special “steering” neurons inside the dragonfly nerve cord." [0] [0] http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service#sthash.MTBxZA1x.dpuf http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service...
- Someone 9y ago
  http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service has some more info: "Research at HHMI—led by Anthony Leonardo, Janelia Research Campus group leader—has led to a deeper understanding of “steering” neurons in the nervous system of the dragonfly that control flight. HHMI is applying techniques in synthetic biology to make these “steering” neurons sensitive to light by inserting genes similar to those naturally found in the eye. Draper is developing tiny optical structures, called optrodes, that can activate the special “steering” neurons with pulses of light piped into the nerve cord from the dragonfly’s backpack. Traditional optical fibers are too stiff to be wrapped around the tiny dragonfly nerve cord, so Draper developed innovative flexible optrodes that can bend light around sub-millimeter turns. These optrodes will enable precise and targeted neural activation without disrupting the thousands of nearby neurons." It isn't clear to me whether they have done that yet, though, and, if so, how good the steering works.
  - leggomylibro 9y ago
    >HHMI is applying techniques in synthetic biology to make these “steering” neurons sensitive to light by inserting genes similar to those naturally found in the eye. Yeah, I'm going to need to see a lot more information on what they mean by that. Which genes? What proteins do they code for? How is their transfection being targeted to only "steering" neurons? What proportion of their 'optrodes' successfully contact their target neuron? Among other questions... This sounds highly aspirational, not like an actual product or even a proof-of-concept.
SEJeff 9y ago
TL;DNR: They put a tiny backpack with some sensors on a dragonfly and released a really nice marketing website with little to no real information about it. The video shows the dragonfly "flying" a few feet at most. It looked more like something for marketing / recruiting than anything.
kleiba 9y ago
I can't help but find this extremely unethical. Of course you could point to lab rats in pharmaceutical research and other cases of where animals are used but from a gut feeling, seeing a microchip connected to a living animal in order to control it seems so wrong. I just cannot put my finger on why this is different to me.

9 points by loppers92 9y ago

What does "liftoff" actually mean here? From the video all I could tell was they taped a tiny circuit to a dragonfly and then let it fly away. Were they controlling the insect? Did the circuit do anything useful? Or was the milestone that they managed to get that little backpack on the dragonfly in the first place?

fudged71 9y ago
"DragonflEye [...] create new optogenetic tools that send guidance commands from the backpack to special “steering” neurons inside the dragonfly nerve cord." [0] [0] http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service#sthash.MTBxZA1x.dpuf http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service...
Someone 9y ago
http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service http://www.draper.com/news/equipping-insects-special-service has some more info: "Research at HHMI—led by Anthony Leonardo, Janelia Research Campus group leader—has led to a deeper understanding of “steering” neurons in the nervous system of the dragonfly that control flight. HHMI is applying techniques in synthetic biology to make these “steering” neurons sensitive to light by inserting genes similar to those naturally found in the eye. Draper is developing tiny optical structures, called optrodes, that can activate the special “steering” neurons with pulses of light piped into the nerve cord from the dragonfly’s backpack. Traditional optical fibers are too stiff to be wrapped around the tiny dragonfly nerve cord, so Draper developed innovative flexible optrodes that can bend light around sub-millimeter turns. These optrodes will enable precise and targeted neural activation without disrupting the thousands of nearby neurons." It isn't clear to me whether they have done that yet, though, and, if so, how good the steering works.
- leggomylibro 9y ago
  >HHMI is applying techniques in synthetic biology to make these “steering” neurons sensitive to light by inserting genes similar to those naturally found in the eye. Yeah, I'm going to need to see a lot more information on what they mean by that. Which genes? What proteins do they code for? How is their transfection being targeted to only "steering" neurons? What proportion of their 'optrodes' successfully contact their target neuron? Among other questions... This sounds highly aspirational, not like an actual product or even a proof-of-concept.

SEJeff 9y ago

TL;DNR: They put a tiny backpack with some sensors on a dragonfly and released a really nice marketing website with little to no real information about it. The video shows the dragonfly "flying" a few feet at most. It looked more like something for marketing / recruiting than anything.

kleiba 9y ago

I can't help but find this extremely unethical. Of course you could point to lab rats in pharmaceutical research and other cases of where animals are used but from a gut feeling, seeing a microchip connected to a living animal in order to control it seems so wrong. I just cannot put my finger on why this is different to me.