WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Can You Train a Bee?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio Pay

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff. Lauren Vogo bam here with a classic episode

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<v Speaker 1>of the podcast. A lot of non human animals are

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<v Speaker 1>smarter than we give them credit for, and can be

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<v Speaker 1>taught all kinds of things if properly motivated. In this one,

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<v Speaker 1>we explore how researchers have made educational inroads with bees. Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vogebam here. Back in two entomologists Joe

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<v Speaker 1>Lewis and Jim Tomlinson joined in a project that for

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<v Speaker 1>the first time uncovered the ability of an insect to

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<v Speaker 1>learn through association. It was at the time not only novel,

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<v Speaker 1>it was an out and out revelation. An insect, in

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<v Speaker 1>this case, the parasitic wasp, which feeds on and eventually

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<v Speaker 1>kills certain agricultural pests, could learn in a most basic

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<v Speaker 1>way I think Pavlov's dogs, except smaller and buzzier. From

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<v Speaker 1>that study and other similar research by for example, ARPA,

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<v Speaker 1>the U S Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,

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<v Speaker 1>we have spun forward to the point where honeybees now

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<v Speaker 1>have successfully sniffed out long buried land mines in Croatia.

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<v Speaker 1>That's a long way from some thirty years ago, when

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<v Speaker 1>Louis and Tomlinson released their findings in Nature magazine, to

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<v Speaker 1>the astonishment of many. Louis said, you talk about training

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<v Speaker 1>in insect period and you get the look the I

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<v Speaker 1>start narrowing. It just doesn't make sense. So how did

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<v Speaker 1>they start making sense of it? Let's talk about associate

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<v Speaker 1>of learning. The whole idea behind this is fairly simple,

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<v Speaker 1>even if no one dreamed decades ago that insects could

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<v Speaker 1>do it. With pav Love's dogs, when an outside stimulus

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<v Speaker 1>a bell is often sided, was associated with food, the

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<v Speaker 1>dogs salivated. The dogs learned intuitively that the bell meant

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<v Speaker 1>food was coming for the Lewis Tumlinson wasps. Various odors

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<v Speaker 1>that the wasps didn't normally recognize, like vanilla or chocolate,

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<v Speaker 1>or mixed with something that was associated with the pests

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<v Speaker 1>that these parasitic wasps were trying to make their hosts.

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<v Speaker 1>After a very short time, the wasps associated the vanilla

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<v Speaker 1>or whatever with the insects that they wanted to attack,

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<v Speaker 1>and thus would fly toward the odor. It took less

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<v Speaker 1>than five minutes to train the wasps, which like bees

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<v Speaker 1>and dogs, have all factory senses. Thousands of times more

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<v Speaker 1>powerful than a humans. As the studies continued, new researchers

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<v Speaker 1>linked the smell of various chemical compounds and explosives to food. Today,

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<v Speaker 1>honey bee trained for just two days could associate the

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<v Speaker 1>smell of explosives with food and seek out that smell too.

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<v Speaker 1>Big advantages to training insects to track odors rather than

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<v Speaker 1>say a dog. They learn faster, and there's a lot

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<v Speaker 1>more of them to teach. But releasing a swarm of

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<v Speaker 1>wasps or bees onto a battlefield or even a now

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<v Speaker 1>quiet meadow in Croatia that may be littered with minds

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<v Speaker 1>has its challenges. Of course, tracking the insects is foremost

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<v Speaker 1>among them. It's impossible, as Timlinson points out, to put

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<v Speaker 1>ships on each of them, and you can't, as Louis says,

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<v Speaker 1>put Alisha on a bee. Still, scientists can trace the

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<v Speaker 1>insects movements in at least small numbers through devices like

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<v Speaker 1>drones and webcams, and something early researchers called a wasppound.

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<v Speaker 1>Lewis's waspound, about the size of a large coin, contains

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<v Speaker 1>five wasps, a tiny camera, and a computer fan that

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<v Speaker 1>pulls air through a small hole in the bottom of

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<v Speaker 1>the device. When the hound comes near the target, smell

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<v Speaker 1>the wasps. Lewis says, cluster around that little hole, like

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<v Speaker 1>pigs to a trough. Another problem researchers face is scale.

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<v Speaker 1>Training one wasp or one b at a time can

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<v Speaker 1>be laborious. Scientists have come up with methods to train

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<v Speaker 1>more than that, but insects, like people, learn at different rates,

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<v Speaker 1>so mass learning is not as accurate. In addition, bad

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<v Speaker 1>weather or anything that disrupts the insexibility to smell can

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<v Speaker 1>cause difficulties. Research is continuing. Tomlinson and Lewis never envisioned

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<v Speaker 1>be snifficg out bombs. Tomlinson is a professor of entomology

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<v Speaker 1>at Penn State and Lewis a retired fessor and a

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<v Speaker 1>research entomologist with the U S Department of Agriculture in Tifton, Georgia.

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<v Speaker 1>They were looking for ways to control pests biologically rather

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<v Speaker 1>than with pesticides, and in fact they were very successful

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<v Speaker 1>at it. Along with UK scientist John Pickett, Lewis and

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<v Speaker 1>Tomlinson won the two thousand eight Wolf Prize for Agriculture,

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<v Speaker 1>considered by many as a type of Nobel Prize in

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<v Speaker 1>the field. From the official announcement, on the Wolf Foundation website.

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<v Speaker 1>They were awarded the prize quote for their remarkable discoveries

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<v Speaker 1>of mechanisms governing plant insect and plant plant interactions. Their

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<v Speaker 1>scientific contributions on chemical ecology have fostered the development of

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<v Speaker 1>integrated pest management and significantly advanced agricultural sustainability. Whether their

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<v Speaker 1>work eventually will help form the basis of a widespread

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<v Speaker 1>practical use of bees and wasps in sniffing out bombs

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<v Speaker 1>or drugs remains to be seen. Even they have some doubts.

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<v Speaker 1>Tomlinson said, you can train insects to find a mine,

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<v Speaker 1>that's not a problem. But then you release them into

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<v Speaker 1>the field to find a mine. How do you track

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<v Speaker 1>them unless someone comes up with a small chip so

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<v Speaker 1>that you can track them with some electronic means. I

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<v Speaker 1>don't see how in the world you can use them,

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<v Speaker 1>and says Louis, to move it from the lab to

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<v Speaker 1>the actual field, you have to scale it up and

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<v Speaker 1>refine it. But we clearly can see that it can

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<v Speaker 1>be practical in development. It's technically feasible. It's all on

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<v Speaker 1>valid science. The ability is there. It's about the demand

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<v Speaker 1>for it and putting the infrastructure in place for that.

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<v Speaker 1>Scientists have been trying to find ways to harness the

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<v Speaker 1>remarkable power of smell for years. Bees, some believe, have

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<v Speaker 1>such strong abilities that they can smell out illnesses, even cancer.

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<v Speaker 1>A Spanish designer went so far as developing a prototype

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<v Speaker 1>bowl complete with honey bees that you can breathe into

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<v Speaker 1>to see how the bees react as a sort of

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<v Speaker 1>proto diagnosis, and tests are being done in California with

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<v Speaker 1>cancer detecting dogs too. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article these are smart, but try training them at home

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<v Speaker 1>on houstuffworks dot Com. Written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff

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