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Land Mines, Honey Bees and CCD
By Tina Casey, Clean Technica.com
Abandoned land mines
have been called “the worst form of pollution on earth.” They kill up to 20,000
people every year, and according to one recent study it will take
450 years to find
and clear all of them. That estimate might be too optimistic, because new mines
can be laid as fast as the old ones are cleared. Ridding the world of land mines
sounds like a Sisyphean task of epic proportions. Or is it? Enter
DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) and the
humble bee.
Bees and Chemicals
Using bees to detect land mines has its roots in decades-long research at the
University of Montana, conducted by research professor
Dr. Jerry J. Bromenshenk.
Dr. Bromenshenk and his team have found that
bees are expert sample-takers.
They collect everything: air, water, vegetation, and chemicals in gaseous,
liquid and particulate forms. A single colony can generate up to hundreds of
thousands of flights every day, each bee returning to the hive with his
collection.
Bees, DARPA, and Odors of Interest
More recently, Dr. Bromenshenk and his team began focusing on “odors of
interest” under a DARPA contract. The team was able to document that the bees’
acute sense of smell enables them to function as fine-tuned, highly accurate
vapor detectors for chemicals that are present in explosives, bombs, and
landmines. Under certain conditions they can detect concentrations at
approximately 30 parts per trillion, with the potential to reach an even lower
threshold.
How to Make a Bee Find a Land Mine
Like mine-sniffing dogs and other mammals, bees can be trained with a food
reward. Within a matter of hours, they can learn to associate designated odors
with food. Dr. Bromenshenk’s team found that bees will detect a vapor plume and
follow it to the source. By comparing the density of bees in different areas
over time, observers can pinpoint the likely sources. Lasers, radar and other
new developments in surveillance
technology can enable researchers to track and count practically
every single bee.
Bees to the Rescue
Aside from their accuracy, bees have a number of strong advantages when it comes
to land mine detection. As lightweight hoverers, they can cover an area without
accidentally discharging a mine. They are much cheaper than high-tech equipment
and they are much easier to train than dogs and other mammals, lending
themselves to use in areas where funds for mine removal are thin (one leading
mine removal organization,
HALO Trust, has
stopped using dogs due to lack of consistency). Amazingly,
bees from one hive will recruit
others, so only one trained hive is needed to start surveilling a
large area.
Last year the previous administration
halted plans to
move the tests overseas - a crucial step needed to explore conditions in actual
minefields. With a new administration dedicated to
more federal funds for scientific
research, there’s a chance that the research will resume soon,
and negotiations are underway on arrangements for a new round of trials.
Colony Collapse Disorder: To the Rescue of the Bees
The mine-detecting potential of bees adds another dimension of urgency to the
mystery of
colony collapse disorder,
which has been decimating bee populations around the globe. Changing the bees —
introducing
hardier species
or using genetic modification to produce a
resistant species
— is one avenue being explored. Bromenshenk, a leading researcher in the
phenomenon, has been studying colony collapse disorder from early on, and
University of Montana researchers have been investigating a number of possible
causes including
Nosema ceranae, a
single-celled fungus.
from an article by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping
www.Beeculture.com
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