Feature:
Sniffer bees could detect Balkan landmines,
scientists say
“Biologists
in France & Croatia
have successfully reared sniffer bees which they claim could find explosives
that are hidden underground in the Balkans.
The insects are said to have an
olfactory sense as strong as sniffer dogs. Researchers hope they will speed up
the urgent task of clearing thousands of landmines…About one million landmines,
most containing TNT, were planted during the war in Bosnia in 1992-95. Nearly
120,000 of the unexploded devices remain in more than 9,400 minefields…
“We knew that bees were sensitive to
certain smells, like geraniums or nerol. The challenge was to get them to learn
to spot TNT,’ said Yves LeConte, director of the bee & environment unit at
INRA, in Avignon, southern France…
In experiments, Le Conte hid TNT
under sand covered with sugar syrup to attract the bees. This encouraged the
insects to prefer pots with TNT in them…
This isn’t the first time scientists
have tried to train bees to sniff out explosives. In 2006, the Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico
released a study that suggested bees were better bomb detectors than man-made
devices."
Henry
Samuel
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
Montreal Gazette
May 24/2014
Weekly Chuckle
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