this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Science Memes
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This is either real or a terrifyingly elaborate hoax.
Actual product page
At Avantor
This very much could be real.
Experiments have shown before that simple insects have very simple responses to detecting light in different directions. Shine a light in one eye, they go left. Shine a light in the other eye, they go right. Shine a light in both eyes, they go straight forward.
It would be fairly simple to glue a couple tiny LEDs to the insect's eyes and wire them up to a tiny microcontroller and radio receiver. And voila -- remote control roach.
Probably not super reliable in the controls and doesn't always go exactly where you want it ... but it should do a decent job of going in the general direction you tell it to.
Vsauce made a video on it!