Roaches on a mission: Scientists see bugs as spies

“Meet the future of biological and chemical espionage: yeast and cockroaches.

Odd as the combination sounds, it could be the building block of a new, inexpensive spy device - one that could sneak into a building undetected and sense chemicals or biological agents, said Jeff Brinker, a Sandia National Laboratories scientist and professor at the University of New Mexico.

‘Cockroaches are robust - they can go into environments that humans can’t withstand,’ Brinker said. ‘You could attach a sensing device onto the back of a cockroach and send it into a place where you suspect they’re making chemical weapons.

‘If you can go in covertly, you can collect evidence without anyone getting spooked.’

Who needs the CIA when you’ve got ninja cockroaches? As for the sensing device, Brinker said, that would be made of yeast.

‘Yeast functions like a canary in a coal mine,’ said Helen Baca, a doctoral student working with Brinker. ‘If yeast cells are exposed to dangerous chemicals, they change and die. You can actually genetically modify yeast cells so when something specific happens to them, they change color.’ “