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Wasps Better Than Dogs At Sniffing Out Bombs
boinx writes "Researchers have found that certain wasps can be trained in a matter of minutes to detect the odoriferous substance of your choice. All it takes is a PVC pipe, some wasps and a webcam. Check it out."
Cause when they detect something, they're to small to have fricking laser beams attached to their heads!
"I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
Wow! It's great. Well, maybe I'll use wasps to find my socks when I'm going to work. The only problem is to train 'em for that specific odor.
bifacial [bifeishel] - n., Lat. 1) Having two faces...
Similar stories have been reported in places like New Scientist (best example I could find at the moment) for several years. Often they just come to a conclusion that dogs, once trained, are far easier to handle than wasps and live a lot longer.
I for one welcome our insect overlords! I'd like to remind them that as a trusted slashdotter I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground hives.
"I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
Did anyone else think: "Well, certainly wasps can sniff *money* better than dogs, but bombs?...", before figuring out that article was talking about the other kind of "wasp"?
Oh well ....
I for one welcome our new bomb-sniffing wasp overlords.
=)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
My first thought was that I could train wasps to find my keys. After consideration, I think my keys may smell rather similar to the pocket I usually keep them in, which is in my jeans, next to my groin.
The last thing I need is a groin full of wasps.
"Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
I wouldn't feel particularly threatened by a couple of law enforcement personnel pursuing me with wasps on leashes, for one. Although I suppose the inevitable case of giggles might give my position away.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
At first this looked like some sort of wierd fetish pr0n "check my new webcam out!" spam.
And what is the point of watching the wasps with a web cam? What is wrong with a clear tube? Sheesh! Talk about technology for technology's sake.
The biggest problem I see is the specificity of the smells. How many sorts of explosives can you train the wasp for in the few short days you have to work with them? Though, I do see how an industry could form around building and supplying arrays 'of wasp detectors' that you would have people walk through.
And what's the deal with the overly sensitive "released to live out their natural lives"? Do they do the same for laboratory fruit flies?
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Wasps are an extremely annoying insect and need to be exterminated wherever encountered. Kill them all! Even the date wasps which fertilize the date palms in the rainforest which feed 90% of the rainforest food chain. Complete destruction of the rainforests and destabilization of the entire biosphere is a small price to pay for getting rid of all the wasps.
This also applies to the hornets, bees, bumblebees, german yellowjackets, wingless wasps, ants and any other related insect with a stinger.
see, the problem is that wasps arent going to live that long, so youre gonna be constantly training new wasps.
Unless you genetically engineer one to live six times as long, like they did with rats.