Honeybees can detect the subtle scents of lung cancer in the lab — and even the faint aroma of disease that can waft from a patient’s breath.
Scent is an important part of how many insect species communicate, says chemical ecologist Flora Gouzerh of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development in Montpellier. For them, “it’s a language,” she says.of a border collie and a Doberman sniffing out their owner’s melanoma in 1989. More recently, scientists have shown that
Honeybees were held in place with 3-D printed plastic harnesses and some wax while the researchers performed bee brain surgery, attaching wires to the region that processes odors. A device delivered puffs of air to the insects’ antennae, like a salesperson spritzing scents at a perfume counter.