PETA supporters take note, because DARPA has just
revealed plans for expanding its ever-growing army of animal soldiers: armed attack dolphins,
spy turtles, and remote-controllable sharks
could soon be joined by swarms of sensor-laden surveillance insects in monitoring, attacking, and generally confusing
our enemies, if the advanced research agency's latest bid proposal proves successful, according to the BBC. Would-be
submitters must be able to fabricate MEMs that can be implanted into bugs at the pupa stage for integration into
biological systems during development, and must prove that they can guide their creations to within three meters of a
target from a minimum distance of 100 meters. Independent scientists contacted by the BBC were skeptical about this
project at best -- citing both the difficulty in remotely gathering data from such small sensors as well as in coaxing
insects to do anything besides eat and mate -- with reactions running the gamut from "fiction" to
"wacky" to "ludicrous." That's DARPA for you- always spending our tax dollars with thoughtfulness
and efficiency.[Via The Raw Feed]