Somewhere between dystopian sci-fi and a Black Mirror B-side, Chinese scientists have just wired a living bee’s brain to a controller that makes it turn left or right on command.
A team at the Beijing Institute of Technology successfully turned an ordinary worker bee into a fully functional cyborg, using a 74-milligram controller—the lightest insect-compatible brain interface ever made. “Insect-based robots inherit the superior mobility, camouflage capabilities, and environmental adaptability of their biological hosts,” lead researcher Professor Zhao Jieliang wrote in a peer-reviewed paper published last month.
In testing, bees followed commands 90 percent of the time, responding to low-voltage electric pulses that made them advance, turn, or backtrack. The controller is strapped directly to the bee’s back and connected to its brain via three tiny needles. It’s a high-tech leash on one of nature’s most efficient fliers.
Scientists Created a Cyborg Bee You Can Steer Like a Remote Control Car
Bees already haul heavy loads in real life—nectar sacks up to 80 percent of their body weight over several miles—so a 74-milligram payload is well within their range. That’s part of what makes them perfect for this sort of thing. Professor Zhao believes this tech could be useful in “urban combat, counterterrorism, and narcotics interdiction,” not to mention disaster relief or search-and-rescue missions.
But, right now, there’s a catch. The bees still have to be physically tethered to a larger power source. Right now, the controller runs on external wiring because even the lightest battery scientists have tested so far (around 600 milligrams) is still too bulky for a bee to carry mid-flight. And in some cases, bees just straight-up refuse to cooperate.
Still, the team is already planning to upgrade. “Precision and repeatability of insect behaviour control will be enhanced,” the researchers wrote, adding that future models will improve perception and independence, potentially enabling fully autonomous, real-time, wireless flight missions in complex environments.
It’s both wildly impressive and deeply unsettling: we’ve spent years worrying about the bees disappearing, and now we’re trying to plug them in.
We’ve officially turned nature into a surveillance tool. Sleep tight.
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