LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) _ Researchers at the University of Kansas are studying bees for new types of engineering technology.

Rudolf Jander is professor of animal behavior. He and two students are watching how European honeybees find their way back to their hives when disoriented. They say the research could be used to design new types of unmanned space vehicles or safer firefighting techniques.

One of the students is trying to train bees to find their way back to their hives. He sets out licorice-smelling syrup on two tables, spaced 15 meters apart, and watches how bees taste the syrup and return to their hives.

The researchers then plan to confuse the bees by moving the syrup to other tables and then moving the tables themselves to see how the bees adapt.