New homeland security buzz: bomb-sniffing bees

Left: The DoD's newest toy

One of the more creative uses of operant conditioning to date. Perhaps we could train the bees to perform different dances depending on what type of bomb they've detected. Here's a handy summary that CNN.com has provided of its own article, which only takes two minutes to read in the first place:

• Scientists train honeybees to sniff out explosives from dynamite to C4
• Researchers say bees could spot car bombs, IEDs, suicide bombers' belts
• When a bee finds explosives, it sticks out proboscis, the tube it uses to sip nectar
• Similar research done with wasps in past, but scientists say bees do better