Scientists have given a robot the ability to sense smell using locust antennae.

In 2023, cameras and microphones will surpass human vision and sound. But for all of our technological advancements, humans haven’t quite managed to build a better nose. Evolution has spent millions of years perfecting the smell-sensing receptors that humans, animals, and inspectors use to detect odors. Scientists may have achieved a breakthrough with the help nature.

A study was published in the journal on Monday. Biosensors and BioelectronicsA group of researchers at Tel Aviv University (via), created. According to ), they have created a robot capable of identifying a few scents with 10,000x greater sensitivity than other specialized electronics. They call their robot a biohybrid platform (read cyborg). It has an antennae set taken from a The robot is connected to an electronic system which measures the amount electrical signal generated by the antennae when it detects a smell. The robot was paired with an algorithm that could identify the smells based on their signal output. In this way, the team created a system that could reliably differentiate between eight “pure” odors, including geranium, lemon and marzipan, and two mixtures of different smells. Scientists believe that the robot could be used one day to detect explosives and drugs.

A YouTube video from Tel Aviv University claims the robot is a “scientific first,” but last June researchers from Michigan State University published research detailing a system that used surgically-altered locusts to . In 2016, scientists tried to turn locusts. into bomb-sniffing cyborgs. Let me just say that after millennia spent causing crop failures, pests might finally be useful.