Researchers at Michigan State University recently found that bees’ sense of “smell” is sensitive enough to identify chemical smells of cancer. Bees sense chemicals in their environment using antennae, structures on their heads, which serve as “noses” to sense smells. The researchers wrote in a study published last month that honeybees can sniff out lung cancer on a patient’s breath. Debajit Saha is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Michigan State University. He was part of a team that published the research. “Our world is visual. [The] insects’ world is all based on smell, so their sense of smell is very, very good,” Saha said.
