Insects Smell To Improve Grape Growing.  Add/Read Comments

An insect's acute sense of smell enables it to sniff out succulent grape vines and in turn help vintners to produce tastier wines. At least that's the hope of Australian scientists who have begun extracting odor-detecting genes from insects with the goal of turning them into electronic sensors to help grape growers improve their crops.

Chicago Tribune
"Australian researchers say they are on track to harness insects' sense of smell to produce electronic sensors that grape growers could use in just six years. Researchers have a few possible ways to do this, and they haven't decided the best choice yet. They could identify how an insect's sense of smell works, and then build similar capability into an electronic chip. Alternatively, researchers may develop a "bio-chip" that incorporates needed genes into the chip itself."