Los Alamos perfects bee explosives detection teams
Based on research done by UK-based Inscentinel, government entymologists train bees with sugar water to detect bombs and IEDs; four bees are placed in a small box monitored by image recognition software; when explosives are detected, the bees extend their proboscises and trigger an alarm
Sometime we wonder of we should start calling this publication Animal Science Daily Wire. In the past month we have reported on homeland security products involving dogs, birds, and fish, and now we can add bees to our menagerie. Researchers at Los Alamos, relying on previous research by Herts, United Kingdom-based Inscentinel (the clever name seems to bring together “insect,” “scent” and “sentinal” under one roof) say they have turned the picnic-destroying creatures into bomb detectors by training them to stick out their proboscises — their feeding tubes — whenever they smell explosives. The bees that took part in the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project received a reward of sugar water quickly after they were exposed to dynamite, C-4, and the Howitzer propellant grains used in IEDs in Iraq. The training takes no more than ten minutes.
The next step is to finish development of the bee boxes which will transport the insects from scene to scene. Three or four bees are put on plastic mountings in the shoebox-sized “sniffer box”, while air is sucked by a fan into the box via plastic tubes to aid in the smelling process. If explosives are present, all of the bees will simultaneously stick out their proboscises, and a video camera attached to movement recognition software sounds the alarm. A single overeager bee, however, will not set off a false alarm. “They were really clever when they put together this box with the image recognition software. This is such a simple, cost-effective, and foolproof device that it should go into production as soon as possible,” said Los Alamos entomologist Tim Haartman. Researchers say that if all goes well, the bee boxes could be in airports within a year. The idea is to wave to the box around a passenger in a manner similar to X-ray wands. Expect to see (more) screaming children in airport security lines soon.
We should note, too, that in a previous report we noted a similar program involving wasps. In turns out bees are much better at the task, and less dangerous to boot.
-read more in this This is London report
