Stealthy Insect Sensor Project

[Eurobabe]

Okay, this belongs in Odd science or something...

Scientists say trained bees can sniff bombs

Tue Nov 28, 12:29 AM ET

Scientists at a U.S. weapons laboratory say they have trained bees to sniff out explosives in a project they say could have far-reaching applications for U.S. homeland security and the Iraq war.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said they trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis -- the tube they use to feed on nectar -- when they smell explosives in anything from cars and roadside bombs to belts similar to those used by suicide bombers.

Researchers in the program, dubbed the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project, published their findings on Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061128/sc_nm/bombs_bees_dc&printer=1

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. How the heck do you train a bee?

[Eurobabe]

2. I have no idea

Isn't is amazing what the govt. spends our tax dollars on?

[yellowcanine]

3. I have heard of this. If it works who cares? They are a lot cheaper than dogs.

Actually the original report of this was with wasps.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177671,00.html

[Eurobabe]

5. Ick, why are you linking FAUX?

I need to shower now...

[yellowcanine]

6. For the same reason I don't look a gift horse in the mouth. It is a nonpolitical story.

Surely it is ok to reference a nonpolitical story? Let's not get crazy here.

[drm604]

4. My only question is

will they also react in the same way to other things, like the scent of flowers? Could flowers, perfumes, colognes, etc. cause false positives? I understand (from reading the article) how they were trained to react to the scent of explosives, but would that training remove their reactions to their normal food sources?

[yellowcanine]

7. Apparently from what I read the capabilities of the wasps/bees are quite

scent specific. And even if there were a few false positives, that would not be a big deal. The bag is going to be inspected by a human being. My understanding is that in their tiny brains they associate the smell of the explosive with a food source. Whether that makes it impossible for them to still detect their normal food sources, I don't know. It likely doesn't matter much, because their normal food source is probably not usually present in an airport or seaport setting.

[drm604]

8. Their normal food source is flowering plants.

Thus my mention of flowers and artificial scents (which may by flower based). I don't think either of those would be all that unusual anywhere.

[populistdriven]

9. the question is:

How do you train honeybees to NOT stick out their proboscis?

there may be a dirty joke in there somewhere...

[Nihil]

10. Only pick female ones?

(You knew someone had to say it!)