By James Hannah
The Associated Press

DAYTON, Ohio - Deep in the heart of a laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Morley Stone peers at the image of a beetle magnified to a size that could make it the star of a science-fiction movie.

Stone, principal research biologist at the Air Force Research Lab, is studying the insect's pit organ, which enables it to sense heat more than 30 miles away.

"What we're looking for are things that nature does well, in fact better than what we do currently using synthetic technology," Stone said.

In projects around the nation, researchers are training bees to sniff out explosives, examining cockroaches to locate dangerous chemicals and studying the sticky feet of lizards to try to give search-and-rescue robots the ability to climb walls. Dolphins have been trained to detect mines at sea.

"It's a perfectly logical approach," said Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst for the Federation of American Scientists.

"If you ask nature a question, many times you'll find an answer."

Fruit flies, scorpions, bats, lobsters and octopi are being studied by the Office of Naval Research.

Promode Bandyopadhyay, program officer of biorobotics, said military research into biological systems has been growing for the past 15 years. Much of it is devoted to defensive or detection systems, as opposed to enhancing offensive weapons, for example.

"A lot of military research right now is directed at protecting the soldier," he said.

At Wright-Patterson, the beetle's heat-sensing ability is being studied in hopes it will enable the Air Force to improve warplanes' system of detecting the heat exhaust of tanks, Stone said. He said it might also be used to figure out how to equip micro air vehicles with heat-sensing systems. The vehicles, still under development, are insect-sized aircraft designed to spy on enemy troops.

Stone said the beetles have developed highly specialized heat-sensing organs because they need burnt wood from forest fires to activate their eggs.

Researchers must find a way to integrate the beetle's heat-sensing capability with the electrical and optical systems of warplanes.

"I can't take that beetle and strap it on the front of a plane," he said.

At the University of California at Berkeley, Robert Full has been working on how to transfer the gecko's clinging ability to a mobile, legged robot designed for searches and rescues.

The small lizards have millions of microscopic hairs on the bottoms of their feet. Each splits off into 1,000 tips that are so small they can be detected only with an electron microscope.

Researchers say the shape and angle of the hairs creates a tape-like effect, enabling geckos to scamper up walls and across ceilings by sticking their toes to nearly any smooth surface.

Full said a robot that could climb walls and other building surfaces could better detect nuclear, biological or chemical hazards. He predicted researchers will develop within two years a synthetic adhesive based on geckos' climbing ability.