Insect

When we think of camouflage, it’s usually a visual pattern. But how do you hide from a predator that uses sound to find food, like a bat? If you’re a firefly, it turns out you might resort to a cacophony of ultrasound that acts like “musical armor.”

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.

If a drone were to inadvertently end up upside-down while flying, it would be good if the aircraft could automatically flip itself back over again, to avoid crashing. Such may someday be the case, thanks to a recent study on dragonfly flight.

While pest insects can have a devastating effect on crops, pesticides can likewise cause a great deal of damage to the environment. That's where CropCoat comes in, as it's designed not to kill harmful insects, but to "hide" plants from them instead.

Genetic engineering has been proposed as a way to deal with the deadly mosquito, and a new project by Texas A&M AgriLife Research is looking to enable risk-free "test runs" of such genetic changes that are automatically deleted after a period of time.

No matter how good we humans have made something, chances are nature did it better. Rather than compete, scientists have now tapped into a natural sensor with the Smellicopter, a drone that uses an antenna from a live moth to sniff out its targets.

Although the causes of colony collapse disorder aren't entirely understood, pyrethroid pesticides appear to be one of the main culprits. Thanks to a new technique, it should now be easier to detect these chemicals in the honey of affected beehives.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a tiny new sensor that can be carried around on a small drone or even the back of an insect – and then dropped on demand to track the environment for years at a time.

Scientists have successfully extracted DNA from insects trapped in amber – but any creatures you might revive from this would hail from the not-so-distant past of 2014. The study aims to work backwards to find the limits of DNA preservation.

The Close-up Photographer of the Year competition highlights seldom-seen close-up textures and details of animals, insects, plants and materials. Galice Hoarau's electrifying image of an eel larva snapped during a blackwater dive is the 2020 winner.

Researchers have created a new camera system that’s so small and light it can perch on the back of a beetle. From there, it can be wirelessly controlled to focus on different things, streaming video and photos back to a phone connected via Bluetooth.

Although there are many insects with wings that fold down beneath covers when not in use, the earwig's wings fold the most compactly. Scientists have now copied that folding mechanism, with an eye towards using it in human technology.