I’m sorry, roaches that I’ve squashed. I didn’t know that one day your kin would be our nuke-detecting salvation. Nuclear engineers from Texas A&M, who clearly are less squeamish than I am, have attached radioactivity sensors to the backs of cockroaches. Oh, sorry, to the backs of remote-controlled cockroaches, which sounds like the start of a wonderful prank. It turns out that the little buggers are perfectly suited to the task of locating nuclear material: “Cockroaches really are the perfect medium for this,” says William Charlton, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the university and a principal investigator on the project

I love robot toys that sound a little different. The Robini-i has the usual programmable stuff, but also includes playing field accessories for real-world matches (if you can convince a friend to get one), and connects to an online community. The two-wheeled bot has 16 sensors and four processors, and either happily wanders around on its own, or you can take control. Windows software and a USB hookup lets you program all aspects of its behavior, including moods, reaction to stimuli, and if it freaks out or mingles when it meets other robots. The $250 starter kit (available September 28) includes base stations, hubs, and gaming cards to set up real world playing fields. What caught my eye: a specially tagged ball allows for a variety of competitive ball games (the Roboni-i has a special scoop and uses Zigbee RF to ).

This RC helicopter is a scale model of a Russian Mi-24 chopper, a monstrous beast that’s 55 feet long. The scale version looks about 1/8th the size, and still scares the crap out of us. Check out the video below. We don’t really know anything about the giant “toy” helicopter, except the model it’s based on, but the video below shows that it really works, and that we really don’t want it falling into the hands of any kids. [ LiveLeak via Craziest Gadgets ]