Scientist invents remote-controlled turtles

Weekend Guide: 18 November 2005, Friday.

The Russian army of secret agents will enlarge with new fill-ins promising to be even better than their human colleagues.

A Russian scientist claims he has invented a technology to steer turtles on remote control that can be successfully used in secret missions.

Control devices are planted on turtle's shield and vibrations penetrating through it make the animal follow orders, Alexey Burkinov from the State Pedagogical University in Rostov explained. Special surveillance devices can also be planted there, he said.

The range of missions seen as executable by the turtles varies from military ones, such as planting bombs to fitting bugs, to civil operations - for example, obsevation on animals in their natural surroundings, Burkinov believes.

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Moscow - A Russian scientist claims he has created remote controlled turtles for spying missions.

Alexei Burikov, head of the biology department at Rostov-on-Don State Pedagogical University, said a human controller could direct the turles by fitting devices to their shells.

The device sent vibrations through the turtle's shell, which the turtle would be trained to interpret as a sign that it must change direction.

The scientist added that a tiny camera fixed to the turtle's shell could relay reconnaissance images of an area to a command and control centre.

Mr Burikov said turtles could be used to carry out a whole range of dangerous operations, from placing bombs in an enemy's headquarters to depositing hi-tech recording devices.

But the invention could be used for purposes unrelated to the military as well, he told Russian reporters.

"Monitoring could be conducted for both environmental and defence purposes," he said.

Turtles could be used to observe other wildlife in a way that no human being would ever be able to do, he added. - Ananova.com

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