SSS 2008-08-14

（单词翻译）

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin . This will just take a minute.

Unless you’re talking about killer¹ bees, it’s hard to imagine a situation in which “killers²” 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 serial³ killers.

The method, called geographic⁴ 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 foraging⁵ for food. Bees tend to avoid stopping at flowers too close to home, perhaps to reduce the risk of drawing predators⁶, parasites⁷ or nosy⁸ 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 Interface⁹. Repeating such experiments, with bees or other foraging critters, could help hone the model for catching¹⁰ criminals.

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin .