Imagine, if you will, a world where your mother tells you to stay still when a bee flies up not because she's worried about you getting stung, but because the bee is on a mission. A mission to search you all over for bombs, contraband, what have you — anything it can sniff out.

Luckily for us, the little guys are securely taped down at the moment. A company called Inscentinel has been bribing bees with food to stick out their tongues when they detect certain smells. So far the bees have been trained to sniff out explosives, different drugs and foods as a camera keeps careful watch on whether or not their tongues pop out. Loaded onto a cartridge, the bees can be toted around in a handheld vapor detector and used in the field. If you keep looking at the picture above and worrying about the little detectors, Inscentinel reports on its site: "Bees are happy undertaking their sniffing tasks and are comfortable throughout, only healthy bees work effectively." — Kevin Hall

Inscentinel, via Gizmodo