Scientists Develop Cockroach Diving Suits for the Benefit of Mankind
Most people would rather watch a cockroach drown or kill it with fire, but a team of scientists from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has been working hard to keep Madagascar hissing cockroaches breathing underwater for as long as possible. Professor Hirotaka Sato and his team originally demonstrated that Madagascar hissing cockroaches could be remotely controlled by installing electrodes on their sensory organs. This turned them into drones that could be used in a variety of scenarios, like scouring disaster zones for survivors. There was only one problem – the bugs didn’t handle water well at all, which limited their usefulness in flooded areas. Photo: Hirotaka Sato et al. To overcome the cockroach’s natural limitation, researchers started working on a 3D-printed diving suit that could provide the wearer with breathable air for an extended period of time. They came up with a resin...
