<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><o:SmartTagType
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceName"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceType"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0pt;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0pt;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>http://theweek.com/article/index/244438/croatias-land-minendashdetecting-honey-bees#<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img width=200 height=34 id="_x0000_i1028"
src="cid:image001.gif@01CE65E5.22619620" style='position:relative;top:-40px'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>http://theweek.com/article/index/244438/croatias-land-minendashdetecting-honey-bees<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color="#ec1d25" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:#EC1D25;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color="#ec1d25" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:#EC1D25;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'>Science<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font
size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Croatia</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region><font
size=6><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>'s land mine–detecting honey bees<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>An estimated 90,000 land mines were planted in the country from 1991 to
1995<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 color="#101010" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:8.5pt;color:#101010;text-transform:uppercase'>Published May
20, 2013, at 4:32 PM<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img width=240 height=300 id="_x0000_i1029"
src="cid:image002.jpg@01CE65E5.22619620" style='width:240px'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The sweet aroma of&hellip; TNT? <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Photo: Thinkstock/iStockPhoto</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Crazy
ants may be causing headaches for homeowners <a
href="http://theweek.com/article/index/244431/crazy-ants-invade-the-us-southeast-what-you-should-know"
target="_blank">in the southeastern United States</a>. But over in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Croatia</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
insects — honey bees, to be precise — are being tapped for more
useful ends: Detecting dangerous and undetonated land mines.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Croatia</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region>
is littered with what <em><i><font face="Times New Roman">NatureWorldNews</font></i></em>
<a
href="http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/2000/20130520/bees-trained-detect-land-mines-save-lives-croatia.htm"
target="_blank">terms</a> "the relics of war." An estimated 90,000
land mines were planted from 1991 to 1995 during the Balkan Wars that tore the
former <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Yugoslavia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
apart. In the two decades since, undetonated mines have claimed 316 lives,
including 66 de-miners, <a
href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-05-19/honeybees-trained-in-croatia-to-find-land-mines"
target="_blank">reports the <em><i><font face="Times New Roman">Associated
Press</font></i></em></a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Enter
Nikola Kezic, a professor and honey bee expert at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Zagreb</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
He has created an experiment that tricks bees into associating the smell of
food with the smell of TNT. Imagine you're a de-miner: Instead of setting foot
in a potentially dangerous mine field to sift through dirt manually, you would
first unleash a swarm of insects that would gather over latent explosives
without setting them off.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>According
to <em><i><font face="Times New Roman">NatureWorldNews</font></i></em>, Kezic <a
href="http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/2000/20130520/bees-trained-detect-land-mines-save-lives-croatia.htm"
target="_blank">used</a> "classic Pavlovian conditioning" to train
the bees into becoming unsuspecting bomb squads, mixing a sugar solution with
TNT powder:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Once
enough bees are trained to seek the scent of TNT, swarms of them will be
released into already de-mined fields, where there is still a real risk of
accidentally tripping an unaccounted for land mine. Researchers can use
heat-seeking cameras to track the trained bees, which will gather around any
undetected mines. [<em><i><font face="Times New Roman"><a
href="http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/2000/20130520/bees-trained-detect-land-mines-save-lives-croatia.htm"
target="_blank">NatureWorldNews</a></font></i></em>]<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If
successfully utilized in the field, the bees would be joining good company:
Dogs, dolphins, rodents, and all sorts of other animals have served as
bio-tools to find dangerous explosive weapons. The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in fact, has been
experimenting with bomb-detecting insect swarms since at least 2002, although
it's unclear how much progress researchers have made.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
New York Times</span></font></i></em> <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/13/science/13BEES.html" target="_blank">reported
back </a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/13/science/13BEES.html"
target="_blank">then</a> that the Air Force even planned on outfitting the
paramilitary bees with computer-trackable sensors about the size of a grain of
salt. Yes, that means the government was building a micro-squadron of
cybernetically augmented, bomb-sniffing insects.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>