Forget micro camera systems, insanely-compact audio surveillance devices and night-vision goggles – scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are currently researching a probe that can be implanted into moths to control their flight, alluding to the possibility of insects being used in the future as spies. Though it's the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that has invested heavily in a programme to develop 'machine-insect interfaces' for years, Joel Voldman and colleagues of MIT have collaborated to design a unique, flexible neural probe that attaches directly to an insect's ventral nerve cord (VNC) which, alongside the brain, makes up the central nervous system.