You can detect bombs

American scientists claim they have succeeded in teaching honey bees to pick up when they smell explosive. This tiny insect can become a powerful assistant to security personnel in public places.

(Photo: HDR) This is the result of 18 months of hard work by experts at the Energy Department of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Center - America's leading nuclear weapons laboratory. They claimed that the bees they trained were able to detect hidden explosives in anything, from cars, bags to belts - which suicide bombers often use.

The team trained honey bees to get used to the smell of many explosives, from dynamite, plasticizer C-4 to rocket propellant. Every time a bee finds explosives, the reward they receive is sugar water.

"When bees detect explosives, they just need to prick up," said Tim Haarmann, a member of the research team. "There's no need to be an insect behavior expert, you can still understand the meaning of that action."

Haarmann said that with a small size, people can put bees into small boxes. They can replace professional dogs, pigs and even robots in detecting explosives at airports, train stations and public places. He judged that the next thing to do was to design a suitable bee box and train security personnel to know how to use bees.

Viet Linh