Soon, honey bees to sniff out cancer

Washington – Researchers have said that we can train honey bees to detect certain early-stage cancers in humans.

New research from Inscentinel, a UK-based firm specializing in insect research, suggested that honey bees could be trained to do such type of work.

Using their breakthrough, Portuguese designer Susana Soares invented a glass device with two enclosures: a small chamber in which the patient breathes into and a larger chamber where trained bees are kept.

If the bees detect the odor they were trained to pinpoint they are going to rush into the smaller chamber where the breath is, Mashable reported.

Bees are able to detect odors that a human nose can’t because of their super-sensitive sense of smell.
The bees are trained by exposing them to smell, then feeding them sugar, so they associate the odor with a food reward.