Weird Science

From Boing-Boing

Scientists at the University of Arizona built a robot that's guided by a moth's brain impules.
The moth is immobilize inside a plastic tube mounted atop the 6-inch-tall wheeled robot.
To get the moth to imitate flight, Prof. Charles M. Higgins and his team placed the moth in its apparatus on a circular platform surrounded by a 14-inch-high revolving wall painted with vertical stripes. The moth's neuron reacts to the movement of the stripes and the process begins.
The brain of a moth is about the size of a grain of rice. Although small, “its compact size and simplicity allows for an efficient way to do brain research,” Higgins said.


One of the main obstacles they are currently encountering is that the damn thing keeps running repeatedly into the desk lamps!
Heh.