Funded by the US Department of Defense, Jelle Atema wants to understand a shark's brain well enough to take it over -- to get it to obey commands to smell and sense what's going on in the water around it.
''I want to sit here in my office, call up Charlie Shark out in Hawaii, and say, 'Go follow that wake,' " said Atema, who splits his time between Boston University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. Ultimately, he said, a shark could help the military by surveying hard-to-reach areas for dangerous chemicals or other hazards.
The shark is ideally suited for this research, he said, in part because it has a strikingly large nose.
''I'm totally in awe," said Atema, walking away from the dissection bench. ''I can't believe how big it is. It's five times bigger than an eel's nose."
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