You might think of bugs as pests, if you bother to think about them at all. Alper Bozkurt’s research will quickly set you straight: To him they’re engineering wonders, deft flying and crawling machines that reproduce in nature more reliably than widgets made in a factory.
Bozkurt’s interest isn’t just academic. By the time his work is through, in maybe 10 years, an army of cockroaches and moths just might save your life.
An electrical and computer engineer at North Carolina State University, Bozkurt is among the first of a kind: He tinkers with bugs. Much of the circuitry he works with already exists — networks of neurons, honed by years of evolution — and he augments this circuitry with his own small electronic devices.
He envisions a future in which “biobots” — bugs with wires that protrude from their bodies and connect to control devices and sensors — serve as rescue teams, listening for cries of help. But they could also be spies surreptitiously listening for secrets, or explorers charting the geology of remote caves. Wherever a bug can crawl, or fly, the biobots could, too.
