Posted on 08/16/2014 7:30:12 PM PDT by Innovative
“Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions, not only in the U.S. but worldwide,” says Dr. Allison Goldfine, a diabetes specialist at the Joslin Diabetes Center.
She is helping foreign graduate students Tobias Horstmann and Juliet Phillips with their research project.
They’re trying to use bees to sniff out diabetes.
In collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, they are using a device to house the bees and observe the bees’ reaction. If a patient breathes into the device and acetone is detected, the bees stick out their tongues in response.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.cbslocal.com ...
More from the article: "“We hope that with our screening process,” says Phillips, “we’ll be able to get to these people earlier and relieve the burden, not only on them but the public health system.”
And who is going to pay for the bees and take the patients to them for "testing". Finger pin-prick still wins in my opinion.
Reality: They’re testing this technology on diabetes to gain public approval. They’re planning on using it for *other* detection schemes.
Great. Now we have to worry about Africanized bees attacking diabetics.
They do mention:
““The long-term vision,” says Horstmann, “would be to have a device where not only bees are in there that can detect diabetes but also tuberculosis and cancer. So, with one blow of the patient, we could detect different diseases.”
But — in this case they are looking for acetone in the breath of people and maybe there are other substances present in people’s breath who have other diseases. But in my opinion, it would make more sense to do a chemical analysis, rather than “train bees”.
Will the bees also administer insulin? Through their stingers?
I wasn’t speaking of just medical conditions.
“Will the bees also administer insulin? Through their stingers?”
Sure — why not? people will just go to the pharmacy and order some bees. (/sarc)
And I bet our tax dollars are paying for this “research”.
“I wasn’t speaking of just medical conditions.”
Well, would you like to enlighten us what else could bees detect?
I suppose I could theorize, perhaps bioterror agents?
Ma'am? Your lab results are in...
Hahahahahahaha
That and Alligators in Trees...
They stick out their tongues? These bees are diabetaphobic!
Any number of things.
Including bioterror, yes.
Actually the bees helped me find out I had diabetes. We were camping in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona and I noticed the bees were attracted to my urine. So when I went to the doctor I had him run a blood sugar test and sure enough I had diabetes.
What do I have doctor? “Well, it’s either diabetes, or your last joke was offensive to bees.”
Diabeetes?
I don’t understand the why of this.
Do they plan to release a swarm and see who they attack?
Boo...that is the pits.....lol
Cool, so at the end of the test they can give you either insulin, or adrenaline to treat the Anaphylactic shock
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