Cyborg

If you want to gather climate-change data from the deep ocean, why not hitch a ride with an organism that's going down there anyways? That's the thinking which led to the creation of "biohybrid jellyfish" which pack two speed-boosting technologies.

Manipulating microbes has helped human civilization for millennia, since we started using yeast to make bread and booze. In a modern breakthrough, scientists have created semi-living “cyborg cells” that can survive in environments natural cells can’t.

Why design robots from scratch when nature has already done the hard work for us? That’s the reasoning behind cyborg insects, and now scientists have found a way to power remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches using custom solar cells.

Researchers have managed to create a kind of cyborg, integrating the ear of a locust into a robot. The robot was then able to respond to noises that the biological sensor picked up, which could pave the way for more sensitive and efficient sensors.

Six years ago, we first heard about tiny two-legged "bio-bots" that used spinal muscle tissue to walk. Well, they've now received a big upgrade, in the form of spinal cord tissue that essentially makes them self-powered.

Organ development has traditionally been tricky to study, thanks largely to the difficulty in getting sensors in there without damaging the organs. Now, researchers from Harvard have developed a way to create “cyborg organoids” by integrating nanoelectronics into cell cultures.

Plants are incredibly complex organisms that sense and react to their surroundings. Their normal methods of getting around are pretty slow, so to give them a helping hand researchers at MIT have now created “cyborg plants” that can control a robot base to drive themselves where they want to go.

Back in January, researchers from Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) outlined plans to fit dragonflies with tiny electronic backpacks, allowing them to be controlled remotely. In a new video, their cyborg dragonflies have taken flight for the first time.

Scientists are exploring ways to augment living animals with robotic systems, and now a team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has used a "parasitic robot" to control the movements of a live turtle by feeding it treats.

Transhumanist Rich Lee currently has five implants in his body meant to enhance the way he experiences and interacts with the world. While they may have added to his life, they may now also be taking something away: his kids. We talked with the body modifier to find out more.

​Cyborg insects have been scuttling and buzzing around for years, but now, researchers from KAIST have scaled the idea up to a turtle. With their concept system, a human driver could use a brain-computer interface (BCI) to direct the turtle's movement just by thinking about it.

In the future, remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches could help map out disaster areas and search for survivors. Now two new studies have looked into how accurately the bugs’ movements can be tracked, and how much autonomy they need to be efficient explorers.