The world's first cockroach diving suit actually works

An insect wearing a backpack and exploring underwater tunnels, guided remotely by a human: no, it's not a science fiction scene, it's today's reality. A group of researchers in Singapore invented the first diving suit for cockroaches, and the result is that a cyborg cockroach survived up to three hours underwater thanks to a miniaturized oxygen tank. The idea here is simple but uncomfortable: for some impossible missions, the solution is not to build increasingly sophisticated robots, but to ally with nature — literally, by turning animals into cyborgs that do what no machine can do. We are used to thinking that technology must imitate nature, but here nature becomes the platform on which technology is grafted. And it works. The star of this story is the cockroach, of course, but behind it is Hirotaka Sato, a professor of aerospace engineering in Singapore, who says: "Expanding the operating parameters of our cyborg insects to include underwater travel can really improve search and rescue operations." The unexpected detail? The 3D-printed plastic backpack measures just 10 by 10 millimeters — the size of an eraser — and contains a special sponge that slowly releases oxygen when it comes into contact with hydrogen peroxide. The tiny tubes carry the air directly to the spiracles, the "nostrils" of the cockroach. During the tests, the cyborg cockroach crossed paths full of obstacles, pipes, and puddles, moving at almost the same speed it would on land. Here's a fact worth mentioning: without the suit, the cockroach survives only a few minutes underwater; with the suit, it lasts up to three hours. And that's not all: the remote control doesn't turn the insect into a zombie. Researcher Keisuke Morishima explains that it is essential to leave the cockroach with some autonomy, so it can avoid debris and find the best path — the human only intervenes if it is necessary to change course or overcome a sudden pause. A striking scene: the cockroach with the backpack moving forward in a flooded pipe, guided by an operator who "pushes" it when it gets stuck, but it does the rest, using instinct and its senses. Now stop for a moment: we usually think that robots are the answer to everything, but here the biggest limitation was not technology, it was biology — the need to breathe oxygen. This obstacle seemed insurmountable, until they thought of solving it not by building an underwater robot, but by giving breath to an animal. The perspective that is usually not considered? If you can provide oxygen to a cockroach that is not made for water, in theory you can adapt this principle to any creature and any hostile environment — from space to toxic areas. The idea of an astronaut cockroach isn't that crazy. The phrase to remember? It's not always necessary to imitate nature: sometimes true innovation is collaborating with it. If this story has made you see technology with different eyes, you can press I'm In on Lara Notes: it's not a like, it's a way of saying that this idea is now part of you. And if tomorrow you find yourself talking about the underwater cockroach at dinner, you can mark the conversation with Shared Offline on Lara Notes — so those who were with you know that the conversation was important. This Note comes from an article in Popular Science and saves you 7 minutes.