SCIENTISTS TRAINING BEES TO SENSE COVID

A group of Dutch scientists are training bees to detect the COVID virus. Researchers at insect-technology start-up InsectSense and Wageningen University in the Netherlands say they have trained more than 150 bees in a study to identify samples containing the virus that causes COVID-19 based on its scent. The bees were given a sugar water solution reward each time they were exposed to an infected sample. Because of their sensitivity to smells, bees can be trained within just a few minutes to detect odors, then associate the reward with positive samples. InsectSense has developed a prototype machine that can train bees to detect the virus, which the scientists hope can be used in low-income countries where access to more advanced COVID tests are limited.
* Let me get this straight: They want to stick a bee up your nose, and when it comes out it’ll give you a little bee “thumbs up” if you have COVID?
* They took this idea to Shark Tank and they weren’t even allowed in the building.
* A bunch of bees that know if they smell COVID on a person, they’ll get rewarded. No way this can go wrong.
* It’s going to be like Willard and his rats. “OK, bees, fly! Fly away and find the COVID! Fly, my pretties!!! Ha ha ha!!!”
* For a real kick, train murder hornets to find COVID.
* Well, it’s better than their first idea of using alligators.