Anicet Mbida 06:52, January 26, 2023

Anicet Mbida delivers to us every morning what is best in terms of innovation.

This Thursday, he is interested in the creation of the first cyborgs, robots composed of organs that are both mechanical and biological.

The innovation of the day is cause for concern.

You announce the arrival of the first cyborgs: robots made up of both mechanical and biological organs.

As in Terminator: “a metal exoskeleton covered in human skin.

A cyborg capable of blending in with the population…” I can reassure you, we are not there yet.

We are even very far from it.

The cyborgs I'm talking about are completely harmless.

They are simply remote-controlled drones to which insect organs have been grafted.

Once again, nothing really bad: they have been grafted with antennae from grasshoppers or moths.

To do what ?

To give them a super sense of smell that would be impossible to reproduce with sensors.

We happen to be able to make ultra-sensitive microphones.

Cameras that see better than any human being, than any animal.

But we have never succeeded in creating an artificial nose that is even as efficient as that of a man.

However, you know it, our sense of smell is not very developed.

Labradors, rats and some insects do much better.

Especially grasshoppers and moths.

What are these robots with a super sense of smell going to be used for?

To a lot of things.

We obviously think of the detection of explosives.

You could slip them through airport gantries or fly them over a field and immediately spot mines.

It also happens that many diseases and bacteria have what is called an “olfactory signature”.

This means that we could detect cancer, Covid or whatever infection from a distance, without having to take a sample.

An NGO has, for example, trained rats to detect tuberculosis or cholera.

We could do the same thing, without learning, with robots that smell like grasshoppers.

Isn't there a risk that we'll use the same technique to graft a scorpion stinger or snake venom?

No, because we switch to complex organs that do not work alone.

To graft them, it would be necessary to simulate a large part of the vital system of the animal (which is impossible).

While insect antennae are quite simple.

They work a bit like our body hair.

In any case, the researchers have pledged never to militarize their work.

But, I don't know why, I find that more worrying than reassuring.