Investigator Al Pergande writes:
I recall you have been looking for some research paper that concludes “That’s it, we’re done, nothing more to study here. Move along….” I believe I have located such a piece of research. I direct your attention to this December 9, 2006 Associated Press report. Near the middle of the article, I quote:
“Despite the positive test results, DARPA said it does not see a future for bomb-detecting bees in the military.
“‘Bees are not reliable enough for military tactical use at this point,’ the agency said in a statement this week. ‘We see no clear pathway to make them reliable enough to make it worth risking the lives of our service men and women.’
“In a follow-up interview, DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker said: ‘We’re done in this research area. We don’t plan any further investment.'”
Sooooo… We know have one sector of human knowledge complete. Hurray!
But investigator Jon Weinberg responds:
Hardly fair. DARPA doesn’t say there’s nothing more to know about bees’ ability to detect bombs; it says that the success rate so far isn’t sufficiently high, and the route to make it higher not sufficiently obvious, as to justify spending more than the $1.5 million it’s already put in. That’s the sort of call they’re supposed to make (and make all the time).