Susana Soares is a designer inspired by scientific research to create objects that explore new aesthetic and behavioural opportunities. LSIPR investigated how she protects her work in a realm where life sciences and design collide.
In 2004, UK-based research company Inscentinel, which specialises in using animals’ olfactory skills to detect certain compounds, found that insects have a far keener sense of smell than mammals, and got to work developing products that use honeybees to detect explosives.
The researchers found that in the right context, bees can be trained to detect specific odours in breath, such as the biomarkers associated with certain diseases. The process, where the bees are exposed to a certain smell and fed a sugar solution, takes just 10 minutes.
Inscentinel’s research and work with the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico inspired Portuguese designer Susana Soares to embark on a project that harnesses bees’ sense of smell as a means of diagnosing diseases.
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Susana Soares, Bees project, open source, Insects au gratin, IP strategy
