“Hijacked Cicadas Play Music Like a Cyborg Loudspeaker”
May 5th, 2025Via: New Scientist:
Cicadas make noise with organs called timbals that have thick ribs joined by thin membranes that, when flexed, create a click. Doing this hundreds of times a second creates a continuous noise, with the pitch determined by the frequency of the flexes.
To take control of the timbals, the researchers implanted electrodes into seven large brown cicadas (Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata) and used signals from a computer passed through an amplifier to induce noises at precisely controlled pitches.
The team was eventually able to induce the cicadas to accurately play music, with the insects capable of reproducing tones over more than three octaves, from a musical note A at 27.5 hertz to a C at 261.6 hertz.
Cicadas. Those things are creepy already. Good God, what the hell is next?
If they can be made to play music, they could talk.
Imagine the bugs showing up, ordering you to vacate the area. “You have ten seconds to comply.” Countless humanoid robots dropping from the sky. Smoke on the horizon – and a blue light show. Thousands of Cicadas flood the scene, humming, I Am Iron Man…
@dale
That is hilarious