ASU study on pollen could help track down bomb makers

What do bees and bombs have in common? To find the answer, you have to look closely.

Pollen, the same powder that bees carry from flower to flower, doesn’t stay in the garden. “There are hundreds of thousands of types of pollen and these are microscopic,” said Dr. Elisa Bienenstock, ASU Research Professor.

The sticky substance gets everywhere.

“You’ve got no control over it, you can’t defend against it, you can’t not get pollen on you,” said Bienenstock.

Clothes, computers, and even un-detonated bombs are all covered in pollen.

The U.S. Department of Defense thinks tracking the pollen could be a helpful tool, a microscopic road map of sorts, in finding who is responsible for making these kinds of weapons and where they came from.