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Unleash the wasps
Natural History, Feb, 2006 by Rebecca Kessler
Cuddly they're not, but trained wasps might one day offer some stinging competition to bloodhounds trained to sniff for corpses. In as little as five minutes, parasitic wasps of the species Microplitis croceipes can be conditioned to recognize and respond to certain odors. The training teaches the wasps to associate an odor with food. But how could forensic investigators exploit the talents of trained wasps?
Glen C. Rains, a biological engineer at the University of Georgia in Tifton, and two colleagues have devised a practical answer. Their invention, aptly called the Wasp Hound, is a portable, eight-inch tube with an interior chamber housing five wasps. When air bearing the target chemical blows through the chamber, the wasps cluster inquisitively near the odor's source. A camera transmits a video image of the insects to a computer, which is programmed to recognize wasp behavior that indicates the presence of the chemical--and then signal accordingly. Rains and his team say the wasps could be conditioned to detect not only corpses but also drugs, plant diseases, spoiled food, accelerants used in arson, and even human diseases such as cancer. (Biotechnology Progress, forthcoming)
COPYRIGHT 2006 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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