Insects — particularly cockroaches — can be pretty darn creepy-looking as-is, but if you can imagine them sporting chips and wires, and being driven remotely, well… that’s a whole over level of disturbing. While it may sound like a bad dream, researchers at North Carolina State University are turning it into a potentially life-saving reality.

For their experiments, the researchers affixed wireless receivers to the backs of Madagascar hissing cockroaches and wired the electronics to the roaches’ antennae and abdomens. By sending small electrical signals to either antennae, the team was able to make the roaches think they were running into obstructions, causing them to turn. Alternating these tiny shocks can be used to accurately steer the roaches, and sending voltage to their cerci — abdominal organs that spur roaches to flee danger — they were able to make them run on command. READ MORE HERE