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The Black Jewel Beetle, also known as the Firebug, likes to breed and lay its eggs in the bark of trees which have been charred by fire. As a consequence, this insect has evolved sensors which are able to detect fires from a great distance. Now scientists are seeing if they can borrow or synthesize the beetles built in fire-detecting technology. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Stephan Schuetz is a chemical ecologist at the University of Gisan in Germany.
“One idea is to take the insect antenna and couple it to a microelectronic device, and record the signals that are perceived by this antenna. We designed a biosensing system that is able to detect fires very sensitively and very selectively. So this is a system that works. This system is much more sensitive and selective than other conventional sensing systems.”
The problem with the prototype system is that it works only as long as you can keep its organic parts – the beetle antennae, alive and functioning, and that’s only a matter of hours or days.
“The effort to synthesize the sensing system of the beetle, the antenna, have started but we know that it will be quite complicated to get all these proteins and molecules that are necessary to get the same sensitivity and selectivity of the antenna of the beetles have.”
To hear about our new CD, please visit pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.
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