Remote-Controlled Sharks: Next Navy Spies?

Jelle Atema, a Woods Hole biologist featured in THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS, was responsible for much of the research into lobster mating behavior and odor detection that I described in the book. You may remember how he was able to steer a lobster at will through a tank -- by mounting odor-release nozzles on the animal's head.

Run, it's Dr. Atema!
(photo: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog)

Well, Dr. Atema's latest endeavor, as described on today's National Geographic website, is a $600,000 project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to see if he can do the same thing with . . . sharks.

As in, mind control.

Neuroscientists already know how to steer a living rat around its cage by remote control, as reported in a Boston Globe article in 2004, when Atema's new shark research was just getting underway. The Globe pointed out that "there are some who will worry that, once researchers gain control over sharks, they will move on to humans."

Well, guess what. Remote control of humans is already being done, too, via something called galvanic vestibular stimulation.

As reported in the Nat'l Geo piece: "Atema said that, as with any scientific research, these studies raise ethical concerns that are best addressed by public forums."