Live Science Plus
A colony of honeybees. An unknown pathogen is pushing the industrious honeybee to disaster as scientists scurry to figure out what the cause is. Early results of a key study by the USDA and Pennsylvania State University point towards some kind of disease or parasite. About one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the USDA.
(Image credit: Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP)
Inscentinel Ltd. has found a way to use honeybees as detectors in bomb-sniffing machines. The bees are first trained and then literally harnessed into a special cassette to aid in the process of biochemical molecular recognition.
Honeybees are trained to recognize particular odors (for example, minute traces of explosive compounds), and then to associate that smell with a food reward. Bees are able to recognize odors that are as faint as only a few parts per trillion in an air sample. When the bees detect the special odor, they extend their proboscis in expectation of receiving food.
