A group of scientists from the University of Washington, led by Barani Raman, managed to rework it the grasshopper’s olfactory system Schistocera Americana are developed as detectors biological pumps.
Olfactory receptor neurons in the antennae of these insects are responsible for finding local chemical odors in the air. These neurons transmit electrical signals to a part of the brain called the antennal lobe.
For their experiment, the researchers released vapors of various explosive materials onto the grasshopper’s antennae, including a vapor of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and its precursor 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT).
The team took advantage dynamite (TNT) and its precursor 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), along with hot air and benzaldehyde (the main component in the oil bitter almonds) as controls.
They further found that some neurons were activated when exposed to explosive materials. The next step was to measure the patterns of neural activation of each of the compounds produced in the grasshoppers’ brains: they distinguished the explosive vapors from the non-explosive ones and also managed to distinguish them from each other.
The last step was to equip the grasshoppers “backpack” of sensors lightweight devices capable of wirelessly recording and transferring information to a computer. Their brains could detect explosives until seven o’clock after surgery, the time after which The insect got tired and died.
The researchers, funded by the United States Office of Naval Research, believe the grasshoppers could see future applications in cases of high national security concern. The dataset of seven locusts showed average accuracy 80% in detection.
