Sunday 3 August 2008

Biological seriality

Once upon a time, people questioned my sanity when I speculated about the growing imbrication of biological thinking and forensics. Well, I wrote a thesis about the topic, and I've just come across the following (hot off the press). Needless to say, the operating assumptions of the scientists are hopeless bunkum, which opportunistically chime with the cynicism of our increasingly dominant biocultural ethos, thereby guaranteeing in all likelihood a healthy amount of research funding into the forseeable future:
Bumblebees teach police to catch serial killers
Tomas Martin @ 30-07-2008
What do busy busy bumblebees and sinister serial killers have in common?
They both stray far from their home when doing plying their trade, according to scientists from the University of London. When foraging for nectar, a bumblebee will create a ‘buffer zone’ around its nest that it won’t drink the flowers in, so that predators and parasites don’t follow it back to its home. The researchers found that this buffer zone was very similar to the pattern created by serial killers when they kill their victims. By studying the paths of bumblebees they hope to give forensic experts better clues as to where a killer might live based on his killings. We’d better make sure we keep the bees alive then.

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