Plus: Mind-Controlled Insects, Saving the World with Fake Trees and Big Business in Ireland.

Remote-Controlled Cockroaches
No one likes cockroaches, but even though we may consider these insects disgusting, there’s a surprising amount we can learn from them. In fact, high school students are soon going to be able to install special devices that allow them to control a cockroach’s movement as if it were a kind of biological robot.

In an effort to introduce neuroscience education into schools, scientists at Backyard Brains are developing the Roboroach, an inexpensive kit that can be attached to a cockroach and allow a user to control the bug through electrical impulses. The makers hope that letting students see the effects of neurons within the brain will inspire them to have a greater interest in neuroscience.

“You could argue that there are slight differences between the neurons in cockroaches and in humans,” Backyard Brains co-founder Greg Gage told AOL News. “But they are really similar: They both encode information the same way, and they both look the same way. So you can learn a lot about human physiology from studying these simple creatures.”

When a cockroach’s antennae touch a wall, the insect instinctively draws closer to run along that wall. The Roboroach apparatus triggers the same neurons responsible for this activity, prompting the roaches to make left or right turns. Despite how strange it seems, the technology is actually one of the simplest and cheapest forms of brain stimulation available. While the final product hasn’t been released yet, the developers have given a prototype version to a high school in Michigan.

“Though the end product basically looks like a cockroach wearing a backpack made of the inside of an alarm clock, it really does work, granting bi-directional control. Apparently the only issues left to solve are the logistical problem of getting the gear to stay on the cockroach, and the reliability rate,” Popular Science reports. “BackyardBrains, the creators of the project, says only about 25 percent of cockroaches can effectively be controlled through this method, but they remain optimistic that that number can be improved.”

Artificial Trees Provide Real Oxygen
At a recent green-building event sponsored by urban planning firm SHIFTboston, a pair of French designers revealed a radical arbor update: artificial trees that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen. If the technology proves successful, the average city block may never look the same again.

The artificial trees, known as Treepods, were originally based around a relatively simple CO2 filtration process. Incorporating biomimicry principles, the CO2 scrubbing mechanism was designed to resemble a tree and the entire structure to be powered by a mix of solar and kinetic energy. The Treepods mimic what real trees do, absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and emitting oxygen under their own power.

“The Treepods would be constructed purely of recycled plastic bottles. On top, they’d be covered with solar panels to help power the CO2 filtration process, which would take place throughout the branches using a ‘humidity swing’ process,” technology blog DVICE reports. “The trunk of the tree sports an integrated seesaw, where children can get off their lazy butts and start generating some electricity to help save the world already.”

Image Credit: SHIFTboston

“If the city of Boston were to benefit from the Treepods, the concept could be easily and cheaply replicated in polluted cities all over the world,” SHIFTboston explains. “The Treepods could be exceptionally beneficial in cities where smog levels are so high that natural trees and plants have a difficult time growing in.”

The Polar Space Junk Laser
The Earth’s population has been littering into space at a tremendous rate for the last 50 years. As a result, there are now nearly 20,000 man-made objects over 10 centimeters in size orbiting the planet, and many of these objects constitute unwanted debris. Now, scientists are actively looking for ways to alleviate the mounting space junk problem.

One interesting alternative proposed by NASA scientists in a recent paper involves building a moderately sized laser and placing it at one of the Earth’s poles. The laser wouldn’t be used to vaporize space garbage, but simply to change its orbit to avoid collisions and protect strategic assets. Preventing these space junk collisions is more important than it sounds.

“In 1978, the NASA scientist Donald Kessler predicted that a collision between two pieces of space junk could trigger a cascade of further impacts, creating dangerously large amounts of debris,” MIT’s Technology Review explains. “Kessler pointed out that when the rate at which debris forms is faster than the rate at which it de-orbits, then the Earth would become surrounded by permanent belts of junk, a scenario now known as the Kessler syndrome. By some estimates, the Kessler syndrome has already become a reality.”

Although satellites and the International Space Station are usually moved out of the way to avoid hitting space junk, the laser could be used to concentrate photons on a target and nudge it out of its path. Perhaps more importantly, the beam could also de-orbit an object, clearing away the debris bit-by-bit and helping to combat the Kessler syndrome.

According to Popular Science, the proponents of the laser approach “say much more research is needed, but the laser system could be a feasible, fiscally prudent alternative to space debris removal — nothing would be launched into space except photons, so there would be nothing else to add to the junk.”

Erin Go Bragh
Did you know Ireland is one of the world’s largest suppliers of beef, or that it’s home to nearly 1,000 foreign companies? In honor of St. Patrick’s Day earlier this week, here are some highlights, provided by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, of the many contributions to global business, innovation and research that Ireland makes today:

Have a great weekend, folks.