You know what's stealthier than an ordinary drone? One that can disintegrate when it needs to, in order to destroy evidence of its spying activities. A team of researchers from various educational institutions and NASA Ames Research Center has developed a biodegradable drone made of mycelium (or the vegetative part of fungi), which recently completed its first flight. According to Lynn Rothschild of NASA Ames, once the drone, say, self-destroys by diving into a puddle, "No one would know if you'd spilled some sugar water or if there'd been an airplane there."
A New York company called Ecovative Design grew mycelia into a custom drone-shaped chassis you see above. Unfortunately, some parts of the drone just can't be replaced with biodegradable materials for now, though the team tried to stay true to the idea and used silver nanoparticle ink (which can disintegrate along with the chassis) to print the device's circuits. For the test flight earlier this month, the team had to use propellers, controls and batteries taken from an ordinary quadcopter, but that might change in the future. You can read all about the development process on the scientists' website, where you can also download some 3D printable files of a few drone chassis concepts.
Filed under: Science
Source: New Scientist, Team Stanford-Brown-Spelman
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