Modern science and technology: Sharks = spies

A fascinating performance of Jelle Atema ( below ) and a shark

Imagine you are wearing a shark! You will move underwater without making a sound, feel the electric field, 'catch' the scent and search for the darkness of the deep pool for hours .

Those are the things that will happen in the near future. How? Thanks to the electrodes implanted in the shark's brain. Indeed, US military-funded engineers have created a device that can remotely control electrical impulses emitted from the shark's brain, in order to control fish movement and possibly . prize. code things it's 'thinking'!

Many research groups around the world have been licensed by ethical committees to make devices that monitor and control the actions of many species. Therefore, scientists hope to better understand the interaction between animals and the environment to find solutions to overcome human limitations.

The Pentagon is very interested in these experiments. The US military is trying to take advantage of the shark's natural ability by remote control, turning it into a stealth spy that can track enemy ships without fear of being detected. The program is funded by the Darpa Modern Defense Project Research Agency - under the Ministry of Defense.

The key technique is to inject electrodes into the shark's brain to stimulate active brain regions. As a result, Jelle Atema, a biologist at Boston University, was able to control the barramundi (about 1 meter long, often living in the deep sea floor) in an artificial aquarium. A radio signal is sent through a computer, transmitted to an antenna attached to a fish. The electrical impulses will stimulate the left or right part of the olfactory center - the area of ​​the brain that processes the smell - and the fish will turn left or right just like it has just received an interesting goal. The stronger the signal, the more it turns . angrily!

Atema's group is not the first to seek to "drive" animals. John Cahpin, of New York State University, used a similar process to control disruptive rats in a pile of rubble. The implant bug stimulates a part of the mouse's brain, making it go in the direction that the researcher feels "excited"!

In doing so, Chapin rewards him with a 'flanking' by stimulating the pleasure center! With this system, he trained a standing mouse for 10 seconds when it discovered RDX, which is part of . explosive! New York police are expected to recruit Chapin's mice to intervene in emergency situations such as confirming the location of a bomb or finding people buried in rubble.

John Chapin's mouse control diagram

The Darpa scientists want to aim at programming a microprocessor to be able to observe and decipher the different activities of the animal and determine what it receives as a sea ​​currents, a scent or an electric field.

Tim Tricas, of the Hawaiian Marine Biology Institute, also uses the bug to find out what kind of information hammerhead sharks receive, thanks to electric field sensors. These are salt packs scattered across the skin of the jaws, which are connected to special nerve endings, making the fish very sensitive to electric field changes. Tricas uses these sensors to detect the electric fields emitted from a hidden prey.

Biologists think sharks must also use these electric field sensors to orient themselves. They can wade a straight line, for several thousand miles, without knowing the ocean floor, which is only illuminated by the only light source coming from the sea surface. In fact, they maintain the direction thanks to the Earth's magnetic field, which its sensors are a compass!

According to Tricas, the only way to determine this hypothesis is to observe the ability of sharks to perceive electricity in nature. Darpa also plans to go beyond this experiment. According to Professor Walter Gomes, of the Center for Submarine Equipment Research in Newport, on Rhode Island, the next phase of the study is to transplant electronic devices into blue sharks, before releasing them to the sea, offshore Florida. They will use radio waves to contact fish.

According to Gomes, the US Navy has broadcast stations located on board ships, can contact sharks within a 300km radius! Scientists have built sensors in the shape of a pressed fish (fish that live on the edge of sharks to feed) to reduce water resistance when attached to sharks. They also focused on how the experiments did not harm sharks.

Experimental time is also limited so that fish are not exhausted. Remote control sharks have huge benefits compared to other reconnaissance robots on the seabed. They are completely silent and can make a living by themselves, no need to work hard and care .

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