www.bbc.co.uk Received with cries of being inhumane, a US company that has developed an electronic backpack that fits onto a cockroach allowing its movements to be controlled by a mobile phone app has defended itself against cruelty claims. The Backyard Brains company says that the device called Roboroach is intended to get children to be interested in neuroscience.
Here's the cruel part. For the electronic backpack to work, the cockroaches have to be placed in icy water to subdue them before sandpaper is used to remove the waxy coating on the shell of the insect's head. An electrode connector and electrodes are then glued on to the insect's body and a needle is used to poke a hole in their thorax in order to insert a wire. Their antennae are then cut and electrodes are inserted. A circuit is attached to their backs, and signals are received through a mobile phone app allowing users to control the cockroaches' movements to the left and to the right.
Here's the cruel part. For the electronic backpack to work, the cockroaches have to be placed in icy water to subdue them before sandpaper is used to remove the waxy coating on the shell of the insect's head. An electrode connector and electrodes are then glued on to the insect's body and a needle is used to poke a hole in their thorax in order to insert a wire. Their antennae are then cut and electrodes are inserted. A circuit is attached to their backs, and signals are received through a mobile phone app allowing users to control the cockroaches' movements to the left and to the right.
www.bbc.co.uk Does this differ from a classroom of children using magnifying glasses to burn ants and then look at their tissue, or cutting up a frog? I would hope the creatures were killed humanely before such practices, whereas Roboroach is alive. An animal behavior scientist has been quoted on US scientific websites as saying that the insects are harmed in the process. Some say use of the device will encourage children to think of living organisms as mere machines or tools.
The lifespan of a cockroach depends greatly on the species, with some living a matter of months and others surviving for years. New research suggests that, just like humans, they share their recommendations of the best food source. Cockroaches can eat just about anything, and can survive without food for long periods of time, which makes them scavengers.
The Natural History Museum tells us there are about 4,600 species of cockroach and fewer than 30 of these are considered pests. (There are about 5,400 species of mammals). The world's smallest cockroach is only 0.3mm long and lives in ant nests. The heaviest cockroach is the huge Australian Rhinoceros Cockroach at 8cm in length.
The lifespan of a cockroach depends greatly on the species, with some living a matter of months and others surviving for years. New research suggests that, just like humans, they share their recommendations of the best food source. Cockroaches can eat just about anything, and can survive without food for long periods of time, which makes them scavengers.
The Natural History Museum tells us there are about 4,600 species of cockroach and fewer than 30 of these are considered pests. (There are about 5,400 species of mammals). The world's smallest cockroach is only 0.3mm long and lives in ant nests. The heaviest cockroach is the huge Australian Rhinoceros Cockroach at 8cm in length.
www.independent.co.uk Cockroach farming is booming in China as the country looks for new, cheaper medicines for its rapidly ageing population. Apart from being a food delicacy in China and Thiland, farmers are using cockroaches in Asian medicine and in cosmetics. When dried, the product goes for as much as $20 a pound. China has about 100 cockroach farms, and new ones are opening almost as fast as the prolific critters breed. But even among Chinese, the industry was little known until August, when a million cockroaches got out of a farm in neighboring Jiangsu province. The Great Escape made headlines around China and beyond, evoking biblical images of swarming locusts.
The miracle drug can cure a number of ailments and they work faster than other medicine. Some Chinese hospitals use a cream made from powdered cockroaches as a treatment for burns and in Korea they use it for cosmetic facial masks. A syrup invented by a pharmaceutical company in Sichuan promises to cure gastroenteritis, duodenal ulcers and pulmonary tuberculosis.
Whichever way you look at it, humans are using cockroaches for their own ends.
The miracle drug can cure a number of ailments and they work faster than other medicine. Some Chinese hospitals use a cream made from powdered cockroaches as a treatment for burns and in Korea they use it for cosmetic facial masks. A syrup invented by a pharmaceutical company in Sichuan promises to cure gastroenteritis, duodenal ulcers and pulmonary tuberculosis.
Whichever way you look at it, humans are using cockroaches for their own ends.
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