Slashdot Mirror
Bees Help Detectives Catch Serial Killers
Hugh Pickens writes "The way bumblebees search for food could help detectives hunt down serial killers — because just as bees forage some distance away from their hives, so murderers avoid killing near their homes, says a University of London research team. The researchers' analysis describes how bees create a 'buffer zone' around their hive where they will not forage, to reduce the risk of predators and parasites locating the nest. This behavior pattern is similar to the geographic profile of criminals stalking their victims. 'Most murders happen close to the killer's home, but not in the area directly surrounding a criminal's house, where crimes are less likely to be committed because of the fear of getting caught by someone they know,' says Dr. Nigel Raine. Criminologists will fold this insight into their models using details about crime scenes, robbery locations, abandoned cars, even dead bodies, to hone the search for a suspect."
we've known this for a long time sherlock...
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
If read and understood by a sane serial killer (assuming these things exist). Could they then pattern their kills around a location other than where they live? Hence leading police to profile the wrong location based upon these kind of patterns?
The insight that killers don't kill too close to their homes help detectives. It has nothing to do with bees, really. Bees just happen to behave in the same way.
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
That's the problem with psycological theories and profiling. As soon as the subject knows the model, they probably stop following it.
-- All your booze are belong to us.
...it would really sting knowing that they were caught because of a bee.
I was honestly hoping they discovered a way to manipulate bees to hunt down serial killers and "catch" them.
oh well, back to my plans for the beezooka.
doing their serial killing far away, bombing countries half the world away. While just imposing embargoes on those next door, to reduce the risk to the hive. You don't need Bee theory, forensics or the CSI team to figure out who is doing the killing though.
Riiight. So please explain Russia invading Georgia, China invading Tibet, Indonesia invading East Timor.
Look, if you want to pick on the USA, please go ahead. There are many good & bad things about US foreign policy. But meaningless new-age psychobabble doesn't accomplish anything except making you look like an anti-American kook.
Actually, it's pretty interesting how they don't. It's like they can't help but follow it. A subconscious thing. Doesn't make logical sense to me, but their minds don't work like the rest of ours so it's hard to understand why they behave the way they do.
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
"University of London" is a loose federation and should be treated as such, not all colleges are equal. This story should have been reported as originating from Queen Mary's College, University of London.
UL contains world-class institutions such as UCL, Kings and LSE, but it also contains places like Heythrop College, essentially a seminary in all but name.
This is exactly the issue that made my alma mater leave last year. When evaluating the quality of research, "University of London" is not a useful label.
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.