While James Bond relies on Q Branch for high-tech gadgets, the U.S. military has DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to dream up far-fetched military gizmos. The BBC reports DARPA has plans to develop a living cyborg butterfly. Yeah, we checked, and the story isn't dated April 1st. The cyber-insect's mission: fly into a sensitive areas regular troops can't reach, carrying explosives, detection gear, or possibly even transmit audio and video back to a command post. The butterfly would get "borg-ified" by a tiny micro system called a Mems, which would be introduced at the pupa stage of development, allowing the insect to develop around it. The Mems would then interface with the insect's brain functions to control flight and deliver the required data. Most entomology experts contacted by the BBC dismissed the concept as "ludicrous," and "squarely in the realms of fiction." The main problem it seems is that horny butterflies are more interested in mating and eating than in saving the world from evil villains. The guys at DARPA have a long history of hair-brained schemes including bat-flown incendiary bombs and diver-killing dolphins. But it would be foolish to dismiss them as just a bunch of crackpots — it was their Arpanet computer network that eventually became the foundation for the Internet. — Michael Trei