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Bees’ very sensitive sense of smell can be trained to detect various human diseases in a people’s breath, including cancer.
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prREACH
Dec 05, 2013 /prREACH/ --
December 4 (San Diego) – A Portuguese designer has invented a device that allows trained bees to detect cancer and other serious diseases.
Wasps and honey bees have a very sensitive sense of smell. They are able to smell airborne molecules in concentrations as small as several parts per trillion.
Bees can seek out over 60 odors that include tuberculosis, uranium and methamphetamine as well as diabetes, lung and skin cancer and fungal disease as well as detecting pregnancy.
Susana Soares said exposing bees to a certain odor, then linking that odor to food produces a Pavlovian response within about 10 minutes.
This approach can be used with numerous manmade and natural odors and chemicals as well as biomarkers for some diseases.
Soares said she is adapting current technology so it produces objects and systems that are understandable and useful to people. This particular device consists of a small chamber where the bees are exposed to the smells and a larger chamber where other bees are kept as a control.
The person breathes into the small chamber. Then if the bees smell the odor they were trained to detect, they fly into the smaller chamber.
Learn more here: http://www.bewellbuzz.com/wellness-wednesdays/bees-detect-cancer/