DARPA Funds Remote Control Sharks

An anonymous reader writes "From Undersea Spies: Turning Sharks into Robotic Sentries "It seems like science fiction, but the U.S. military would like to use sharks as underwater spies. The folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who dream up the future of weapons and military systems, envision squads of sharks prowling the oceans with sensors that could transmit evidence of explosives or other threats.""

Re:Please update me

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a line from Austin Powers [imdb.com] where Dr. Evil says that what he wanted was sharks with lasers on their heads and the other guy has to explain that sharks are endangered and so they settled for the next best thing -- sea bass.

Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
Number Two: Sea Bass.
Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
Number Two: They're mutated sea bass.
Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
Number Two: Absolutely.
Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.

Re:it used to be dolphins

[Hal_Porter]

Actually, I found this parasite fasinating

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?ne wsid=44092 [medicalnewstoday.com]

It knows how to regulate the human immune system for it's own purposes. It actually seems quite close to being a symbiote, since it can treat Crohn's disease. Reminds me a bit of Goa'uld in SG-1 actually.

But I guess Rabies [wikipedia.org] manages to change host behaviour in a way that encourages transmission.

Hello extinction, hello dupe

[perrin]

This proposal is unethical on so many levels. Most urgently - many species of shark are already nearing extinction, and if subs and other sea vessels that would like to go undetected start killing any sharks that come close "just in case", they will disappear quickly. As noted in this slashdot story: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/2 3/0214242 [slashdot.org], and this one: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/1 7/1815250 [slashdot.org]

Besides, this story is a dupe: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/0 2/0031225 [slashdot.org] was the previous one.