Bees Help Track Criminals

Unless you're talking about killer bees, it's hard to imagine a situation in which "killers" and "bees" would be related. But it turns out that scientists are using the same mathematical model to describe the behavior of both bumblebees and human serial killers.



The method, called geographic profiling, was developed by a detective who was trying to predict where serial killers might live based on where they commit their crimes. Believe it or not, murderers operate fairly close to home. But not too close. They maintain a kind of kill-free "buffer zone" around their actual digs.

A similar pattern of activity seems to hold true for bumblebees-when they're foraging for food. Bees tend to avoid stopping at flowers too close to home, perhaps to reduce the risk of drawing predators, parasites or nosy scientists to the nest. And working with the former detective, scientists in the U.K. found that geographic profiling allowed them to locate the entrance to a hive based on mapping which flowers the bees visit. The results appear online in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Repeating such experiments, with bees or other foraging critters, could help hone the model for catching criminals.

蜜蜂帮忙抓捕罪犯

除非你是在谈论能致人于死命的蜜蜂，否则你很难想象把"杀手"和"蜜蜂"联系在一起。但是科学家们能用相同的数学模型来描述大黄蜂和连环杀手的行为。

这种名叫"地理画像"的方法是由一个侦探开发出来的，该侦探试图根据罪犯实施犯罪的地点来预测连环杀手的住所。信不信由你，凶手行凶的地方其实离他的住所不远，但是也不是很近。他们在其巢穴附近保持一定的无犯罪现场的"缓冲区"。

大黄蜂觅食时候的活动情景与此类似。蜜蜂倾向于不在离家近的花朵上停留，它们此举或许是想避免招惹其它捕食者、寄生虫或者"爱管闲事的"科学家们到他们的蜂巢。英国科学家们和前面提及的侦探合作，发现根据蜜蜂采过的不同花所得到的地理画像能帮助他们找到蜂巢的入口。这项研究发表在《英国皇家会界面杂志》上。利用蜜蜂或者其它的动物重复这样的实验或许可以进一步提高模型的准确性，从而帮助抓捕罪犯。

Vocabulary:

Bumblebee: 大黄蜂

Geographic profiling： 地理画像

Predator：掠夺者；食肉动物

Forage: 寻找粮草

Nosy：爱管闲事的

Critter: （谑)）生物

Hone: 用磨刀石磨（编辑：胡慧）
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