CHARLES BURY
From the 'What-will-they-think-of-next' department comes word that scientists have discovered a better way to find forgotten land mines.
The military nerds who count such things estimate that more than a hundred-million of the mines, those small but lethal bombs armies plant underground for unsuspecting enemies to walk on.
A single footstep will trigger a mine, and most of them are designed to injure their victims, rather than kill them. Military analysts estimate 40,000 new land mines are spread around the ground somewhere every week of every year.
They are a long-term danger because armies don't reap what they sow, so to speak, but just leave the mines where they lie at war's end.
Finding and removing forgotten land mines is a slow and dangerous task and scientists have been searching for ways to make mine removal easier, safer, and more efficient. The answer may be coming from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who are developing "a new force of minesweepers -- a squadron of honeybees -- to locate fields where land mines are buried," reports Christopher Jones, of Wired News.
Inside each hive a chemical sniffer collects dust from the bees and feed it to a machine called a spectrometer that analyzes it to provide a chemical inventory of the area.
"The spectrometer looks for TNT -- the explosive, primary ingredient of land mines."
Last autumn the researchers set up a test range for the bees, hiding mines for about a mile in all directions from two test hives. To check on their success they put out two control hives a few miles away.
"Honeybees are really good homing pigeons because they always go back to the same hive and colony," said Ron Gilbert, group leader of electronic systems at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is also involved in the project.
"In the future, the same technology might be used to find illegal narcotics and nuclear materials."
Eventually, reports Wired, project leaders want to train bees to seek out chemicals used in mines by associating odours of explosives with substances they are attracted to, such as sugar. Researchers are also experimenting with different types of plants to determine which ones readily accumulate TNT. If they can be identified, potential mine fields can be seeded with the plants to maximize the bees' chances of finding the mines.
Since bees live in nearly every climate on earth, they could be sent on minesweeping missions in almost every corner of the globe. MORE ON BEES
Not all honey bees are as friendly as those being trained in New Mexico - especially just after they've been through hell on wheels.
In Maine, a truck carrying millions of bees overturned recently, releasing a black cloud of the angry insects and closing a highway for almost half a day. As usual when they don't know what to do, police called in the local fire department, even though there was no fire.
The firefighters in turn were scratching their heads until professional beekeepers gave them some good advice: 'Pretend there actually is a fire.'
As it turned out, gently hosing down the hives with water succeeded in relaxing the bees so crews could load them onto another truck. The bees were tricked into believing there had been a change in the weather, so they went back inside in their hives to wait for the sun.
Not to be outdone, medical researchers in Boston and Philadelphia have been sniffing around as well, reports this week's edition of the Proceedings of the (U.S.) National Academy of Science. They're trying to answer the ancient question asked by insecure lovers since time began: 'Does it help your amorous prospects to have a sexy smell?
The answer so far: 'Maybe.'
"The discovery of a molecule that shows how rats process pheromones could have scientists rethinking how we rely on our basic instincts. A molecule has been identified in rats that could be the key to understanding the pathway of pheromones - the chemicals which dictate sexual and mating behaviours.
But they say what's true for rats may not be so for people.
In humans, reports Wired, "the molecule is nonfunctional, which could debunk the idea that human pheromones function by the same mechanism as those of other mammals."
" Pheromones are known to have a powerful effect on animal mating and socialization. For example, they draw bees to the queen bee, a moth to its mate from up to a mile away, and are essential to mating and socializing among rats."
The same may be true of other animals too - or maybe not.
"The hype surrounding pheromones has engendered a slew of perfume-like products, from pheromone underwear to neckties, which claim to act as love potions to attract the opposite sex like flies. Whether it's all hype or has some physiological basis remains to be seen."
"This finding doesn't mean that we all should throw out our expensive perfumes and colognes," said Emily Liman, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in a statement. "Instead, it suggests that humans probably process pheromones through a different mechanism than most other mammals do." The TRP2 molecule was recently identified by researchers at the Hughes Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital.
"If it turns out to be the key gene in pheromone processing, it could bolster research suggesting that the human vomeronasal organ (VNO) is nonfunctional -- a controversial topic among researchers."
The VNO is the organ that in many mammals reads the signals of pheromones. But evidence suggests that the human VNO, like the appendix, has no apparent function. But that doesn't mean that humans don't emit or use signals from pheromones.
Charles Wysocki, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia suggests that whether the human VNO is functional may be a moot point. Humans might process pheromone signals through a different mechanism.
"People might be choosing mates based on odor type. For over twenty years, people have known that rodents select mates by sniffing out the underlying genotype of the immune system," Wysocki said. "Recent studies suggest that humans are using this, as well."
This mechanism is called the major hystocompatibility complex (MHC), or the set of genes that regulates the immune system, reports Proceedings.
"In rats, MHC signals are read by the olfactory system, but researchers aren't sure whether the human olfactory system, which is altogether separate from the VNO, also identifies these cues."
"Until the 1980s, researchers thought that the VNO disappeared in humans during embryonic development. Recent studies suggest the presence of a VNO in humans, but there's no evidence showing an anatomically complete VNO with connections to the brain."
Researchers logically question whether VNO's role in humans could be as profound.
"The brain might be subtly informed about the presence of pheromones, but humans are so influenced by other conditions like experience, culture, education, et cetera, that the jump is just too big," said Catherine Dulac, an assistant investigator at the Hughes Institute.
Even animal pheromones are not always processed by the VNO. Male pigs, for example, emit a pheromone in their saliva that is detected by the female. If she's in heat, she'll go into a hypnotic state to mate with the male.
Pigs, however, do not have a VNO. So, go figure. And if you're an odour eater, take it easy on the spray, eh? Charlie Bury is a freelance writer based in Birchton, Quebec.
Copyright © 1999 Charles Bury/Log Cabin Chronicles/5.99 |
"While bees cruise for nectar, their fuzzy bodies attract dust and pollen that is carried back to their hives. Researchers are using tiny radio-frequency ID tags to monitor the bees as they enter and leave specially designed electronic hives."