Using Bees to Detect Bombs

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Tumlinson, who did not work on the Los Alamos project, has researched the biomechanisms of boll weevils and parasitic wasps. He sees more potential in a biomemetic approach, in which researchers gain inspiration from nature to develop man-made systems. Currently, he is working with a multidisciplinary team of scientists developing a mechanical sensor that mimics the operation of an insect's antenna.

Moving from the laboratory to the real world can introduce complicated obstacles, he says. "If you're in the laboratory, you can get these insects to respond fairly reliably," Tumlinson says. "In any field situation, the conditions are hard to control. It gets much more difficult." But, he says, the high sensitivity of these insects is too fascinating to ignore.

"It's very tempting to think we can do something with it, and maybe we can," he says. "We're in the process of learning as much as we can about how natural systems operate."

Haarmann and his team carried out field trials, and he believes that a bee-driven bomb detector may be only a year away. He envisions remotely controlled robots in battlefields, capable of carrying a small army of honeybees to a suspected IED (improvised explosive device) or car bomb. If the bees stick out their tongue, a bomb is close by.

"You lose a couple bees, and that's disturbing to me," says Haarmann, who keeps his own hives and used to teach beekeeping in South America. "But I'm the only one who is disturbed."

Wingo, who had never worked with bees prior to this project, estimates that he received "hundreds" of stings during the 18-month research-gathering period. "It's proven to be extraordinarily interesting," he says, "but being stung is not fun."