Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts (34 page)

One of Lal’s innovations
 …
around the implant
: Alper Bozkurt et al., “Insect-Machine Interface Based Neurocybernetics,”
IEEE Transactions of Biomedical Engineering
56, no. 6 (2009): 1727–33; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,
Hybrid Insect Micro Systems
; Sato and Maharbiz, “Recent Developments in the Remote Radio Control of Insect Flight.”

In one set of experiments
: Bozkurt, “Balloon-Assisted Flight of Radio-Controlled Insect Biobots.”

These kinds of pupal surgeries
: Advantages of implanting electronics in a pupa, rather than an adult insect, are discussed in Bozkurt, “Balloon-Assisted Flight of Radio-Controlled Insect Biobots”; and Bozkurt et al., “Insect-Machine Interface Based Neurocybernetics.”

“mass production of these…”
: Bozkurt, “Balloon-Assisted Flight of Radio-Controlled Insect Biobots.”

Our directional control … precisely 35 degrees
: Maharbiz, discussions, February 2010 and April 2011.

navigate a complicated three-dimensional
: Maharbiz and Sato, “Cyborg Beetles.”

In 2011, a team of researchers
: Aktakka et al., “Energy Scavenging from Insect Flight.”

Usually, however, this work … new scientific feats
: S. K. Talwar et al., “Rat Navigation Guided by Remote Control,”
Nature
417, no. 6884 (May 2, 2002): 37–38; Shaohua Xu et al., “A Multi-channel Telemetry System for Brain Microstimulation in Freely Roaming Animals,”
Journal of Neuroscience Methods
133, nos. 1–2 (2004): 57–63.

Rats have an excellent … cyborg insects
: Linda Hermer-Vazquez, in discussion with author via telephone, January 13, 2010.

“They could fit through…”
: Ibid.

They began by opening up
: Details about how the rats were created are from Talwar et al., “Rat Navigation Guided by Remote Control”; Xu et al., “A Multi-channel Telemetry System”; John K. Chapin et al., Method and Apparatus for Guiding Movement of a Freely Roaming Animal Through Brain Stimulation, US Patent 7970476, filed February 10, 2003, issued June 28, 2011; John K. Chapin et al., Method and Apparatus for Teleoperation, Guidance, and Odor Detection Training of a Freely Roaming Animal Through Brain Stimulation, US Patent application no. 11/547,932, filed April 6, 2005, publication no. US 2009/0044761 A1; Hermer-Vazquez, discussion.

Over the course of ten … steep ramp
: Talwar et al., “Rat Navigation Guided by Remote Control.”

As a final demonstration … conventional food rewards
: Linda Hermer-Vazquez et al., “Rapid Learning and Flexible Memory in ‘Habit’ Tasks in Rats Trained with Brain Stimulation Reward,”
Physiology and Behavior
84 (2005): 753–59; John K. Chapin et al., Method and Apparatus for Teleoperation; Hermer-Vazquez, discussion.

“The robo-rats were…”
: Hermer-Vazquez, discussion.

As Maharbiz wrote in an account
: Maharbiz and Sato, “Cyborg Beetles.”

Many animal liberationists
: Herzog,
Some We Love
.

In fact, most Americans take
: Herzog, in discussion with author via telephone, November 4, 2011; Herzog,
Some We Love.

“you can end up…”
: Herzog, discussion.

Herzog has found … cure for cancer
: Herzog, discussion; Herzog,
Some We Love
.

Maharbiz notes that his beetles
: Maharbiz and Sato, “Cyborg Beetles.”

an actual suggestion the SUNY researchers
: John K. Chapin et al., Method and Apparatus for Guiding Movement.

“Where do you draw…”
: Maharbiz, discussion, April 2011.

“Maybe I’m an example…”
: Maharbiz, discussion, February 2010.

That’s fine with Maharbiz
: Ibid.

“to get people to think…”
: Maharbiz, discussion, April 2011.

The technique, which comes
: General information about optogenetics techniques and how they work is from a number of sources, including Ed Boyden, in discussion with author via telephone, September 9, 2011, and January 12, 2012; Edward S. Boyden et al., “Millisecond-Timescale, Genetically Targeted Optical Control of Neural Activity,”
Nature Neuroscience
8 (2005): 1263–68; Edward S. Boyden, “A History of Optogenetics: The Development of Tools for Controlling Brain Circuits with Light,”
F1000 Biology Reports
3 (May 2011); Karl Deisseroth, “Controlling the Brain with Light,”
Scientific American
, October 20, 2010,
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=optogenetics-controlling
; editorial, “Enlightened Engineering,”
Nature Biotechnology
29 (October 13, 2011): 849.

By turning certain neurons on and off
: Boyden, discussion, 2011; Tomomi Tsunematsu et al., “Acute Optogenetic Silencing of Orexin/Hypocretin Neurons Induces Slow-Wave Sleep in Mice,”
Journal of Neuroscience
31, no. 29 (July 2011): 10529–39.

Or we can use a beam of light
: Dayu Lin et al., “Functional Identification of an Aggression Locus in the Mouse Hypothalamus,”
Nature
470 (February 10, 2011): 221–26.

In 2011, Edward Boyden
: Information about the wireless helmet study is from Boyden, discussions, 2011 and 2012; Christian T. Wentz et al., “A Wirelessly Powered and Controlled Device for Optical Neural Control of Freely-Behaving Animals,”
Journal of Neural Engineering
8, no. 4 (2011).

“It’s sort of turning up…”
: Boyden, discussion, 2012.

To Boyden, the headset
: Ibid. For more on potential clinical applications, see “Enlightened Engineering,”
Nature Biotechnology
29.

a pair of former neuroscience postdocs … a neuron fire
: Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo, in discussion with author, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, August 22–23, 2011.

In 2009, Gage and Marzullo … with their students
: Ibid. For more on the SpikerBox, and how it can be used in the classroom, see: Timothy C. Marzullo and Gregory J. Gage, “The SpikerBox: A Low Cost, Open-Source BioAmplifier Increasing Public Participation in Neuroscience Inquiry,”
PLoS One
7, no. 3 (2012): e30837.

The Backyard Brains website
: “Spike Counter,” Backyard Brains, accessed June 15, 2012,
www.backyardbrains.com/SpikeCounter.aspx
.

Because a roach relies
: Gage and Marzullo, discussion.

“It’s like
designed
to be…”
: Tim Marzullo, in discussion with author, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, August 23, 2011.

Marzullo has spent the morning
: Gage and Marzullo, discussion.

“We actually don’t know…”
: “Ethical Issues Regarding the Use of Invertebrates in Education,” Backyard Brains, accessed June 9, 2012,
http://wiki.backyardbrains.com/Ethical_Issues_Regarding_the_Use_of_Invertebrates_in_Education
.

Steering the roach
: Gage and Marzullo, discussion.

The electronics are slightly modified
: Ibid.

Nevertheless, the RoboRoach
: Ibid.

as of June 2012
: Tim Marzullo, e-mail message to author, June 4, 2012.

“
It’s kind of edgy…”
: Marzullo, discussion.

“We’re doing all this…”
: Ibid.

“But if you exploit animals…”
: Ibid.

there is a growing community
: For more on biohackers, see Delthia Ricks, “Dawn of the Biohackers,”
Discover
, October 2011,
http://discovermagazine.com/2011/oct/21-dawn-of-the-biohackers
; Erin Biba, “Genome at Home: Biohackers Build Their Own Labs,”
Wired
, September 2011,
www.wired.com/magazine/2011/08/mf_diylab/all/1
; Ritchie S. King, “When Breakthroughs Begin at Home,”
New York Times
, January 16, 2012,
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/for-bio-hackers-lab-work-often-begins-at-home.html
; Pui-Wing Tam, “‘Biohackers’ Get Their Own Space to Create,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 12, 2012,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577150801888929704.html
; and “DIYbio,” DIYbio, accessed April 26, 2012,
http://diybio.org/
.

The pair rarely lets
: Gage and Marzullo, discussion.

As it happens, their most
: “Backyard Brains Returns to the Nature Neuroscience Podcast, Unveils Optogenetics Prototype,” Backyard Brains, accessed January 13, 2012,
http://news.backyardbrains.com/?p=962
; Gage and Marzullo, discussion.

A class of New York
: “High School Students Hack Our RoboRoach Kit, Make It Better,” Backyard Brains, accessed January 13, 2012,
http://news.backyardbrains.com/2011/08/high-school-students-hack-our-roboroach-kit-make-it-better/
.

Another customer—a Microsoft programmer
: Gage and Marzullo, discussion.

We already have the annual International Genetically
: “The iGEM Foundation,” The iGEM Foundation, accessed April 26, 2012,
http://igem.org/About
.

In past years, teams
: “Team Groningen,” iGEM 2009, accessed April 26, 2012,
http://2009.igem.org/Team:Groningen
; “Team Cambridge,” iGEM 2009, accessed April 26, 2012,
http://2009.igem.org/Team:Cambridge
; Emily Singer, “Bizarre Bacterial Creations,”
Technology Review
, November 3, 2006.

“kids will be able to…”
: Maharbiz, discussion, April 2011.

8. Beauty in the Beasts

there is a movement
: For more, see “Great Ape Project,” Project GAP,
www.greatapeproject.org/
.

In December 2011, the National
: “Statement by NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins on the Institute of Medicine Report Addressing the Scientific Need for the Use of Chimpanzees in Research,” NIH News, National Institutes of Health, December 15, 2011,
www.nih.gov/news/health/dec2011/od-15.htm
.

a bill currently before Congress
: Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011, H.R. 1513, 112th Cong. (2011).

A number of other nations … effect in 2013
: 289. For more details on some of these bans see “International Bans,” New England Anti-Vivisection Society, accessed November 13, 2012,
www.releasechimps.org/laws/international-bans
. On the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, Directive 2010/63/EU, European Parliament (2010).

Some American cities have passed
: “Guardian Communities,” Guardian Campaign, accessed March 13, 2012,
www.guardiancampaign.com/guardiancity.html
.

Seventy percent of dog owners
: Schaffer,
One Nation Under Dog
, 18.

Americans spend $48 billion … eating animal flesh
: Hal Herzog, “Are We Really a Nation of Animal Lovers?”
Animals and Us
(blog),
Psychology Today
, February 14, 2011,
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animals-and-us/201102/are-we-really-nation-animal-lovers
.

When Harold Herzog … surveyed
: Herzog,
Some We Love
, 239–40.