Efforts to use honey bees to help solve police cases gains national attention
Newsweek, US News and World Report, Chanel 6 News in Richmond, and many other regional news outlets throughout the country continue to highlight the transdisciplinary collaboration between George Mason University’s Honey Bee Initiative, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, the new outdoor Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory, and Mason’s Greenhouse and Gardens sustainability program. Together, they aim to find whether analyzing the honey produced by bees after feeding on flowers can be a tool to solve criminal cases and locate missing persons.
“The focus of forensics is to solve cases,” said Mary Ellen O’Toole, the head of the Forensic Science Program within Mason’s College of Science, DHS CINA Center Science Committee member, and former FBI profiler. “Outdoor crime scenes have always posed a challenge to investigators, particularly identifying the location of human remains. The bee research will allow us to scientifically demonstrate that identifying bee activity in bee farms or in the wild and analyzing their proteins can help lead investigators to human remains. In this case, the bees are our new partners in crime fighting, and that’s amazing science.”
Video coverage:
WPTV: West Palm Beach, Florida
Channel 5: Nashville, Tennessee
ABC 10 News: San Diego, California
Other news coverage:
