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This device looks like it was built to torture melissaphobia sufferers, but it's actually a simple diagnostic system that harnesses honey bees acute sense of smell to detect traces of cancer or other diseases in a person’s breath.

The idea comes from designer Susana Soares, and the three-year project involved training bees for 10 minutes a day by exposing them to an odor before feeding them sugar water. This helped the bees to associate the odor with food.

The trained bees are then placed in a two-chambered glass diagnostic device. The bees in the second chamber will fly toward the odor once it is detected. Seems crazy, but this system could help provide a simple low-cost diagnostic tool for healthcare providers.

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[Dezeen]