| This contest is fueled by the following news: |
|  The U.S. Department of Defense is funding research with hopes of turning real life sharks into stealth spies. The Pentagon hopes to turn sharks into living devices capable of gliding undetected through ocean waters. The plan involves placing neural implants into sharks which will transmit information that the Pentagon desires. The research itself (which was reported in "New Scientist" in the United Kingdom) builds on experiments undertaken to control animals by implanting electrodes into their brains which are stimulated to produce desired behavior. Ultimately, the Pentagon hopes to take advantage of a shark's natural ability to glide through water, to sense delicate electrical changes and to follow chemical trails. By being able to remotely control a shark's movements, the Pentagon hopes to literally turn these fish into stealth spies. Presently, the experiments have been performed in laboratories but will be replicated in natural environments. Communication with the sharks will be made through the U.S. Navy's acoustic towers that are capable of sending sonar signals to a shark upwards to 300 kilometers away. |
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