Wasps Could Replace Bomb Drug Dogs
Yahoo News article on using wasps - (not the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant variety who couldn't smell a U-Haul Truck of fertilizer) for detection. Would scare the shit out of me if they were roaming the airport.
The "Wasp Hound" research by Lewis and University of Georgia agricultural engineer Glen Rains is part of a larger government project to determine if insects and even reptiles or crustaceans could be recruited for defense work. That project has already resulted in scientists refining the use of bees as land-mine detectors.What I want to know is who in the hell comes up with the idea first?
posted by Flimsy Sanity @ 1:30 PM
4 Comments:
At 3:21 PM,
Anonymous said…
New Government Job - Wasp wrangler.
At 9:59 AM,
Anonymous said…
Just think, we could train the wasps to go after people who place land mines in the ground. Now, that would help. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the land mines that are already out there can be removed, but if we could prevent further destruction - would be good.
At 5:05 PM,
Anonymous said…
For some reason, this calls to mind the work of J.B.s. Haldane, the biologist/biometrist, with regard to bees' navigation systems. He found they could, by intricate "dances", convey to each other direction and distance of a nectar source but could not convey its elevation--how high from the ground it occurred. Haldane famously said, "There are undanceable truths." I wonder if there are like limitations for wasps???
At 11:30 AM,
Shephard said…
Wasps would probably be a more effective defense than puppies. Unless maybe they were poisonous puppies, and you didn't know it.
Nice to know our tax dollars are going to good use. ~S
Post a Comment
<< Home