A STRANGE breed of bee is buzzing around a lab at the Xerox Research Centre in Grenoble, France. Unlike its hive-dwelling brethren, this creature does not visit flowers or make honey, instead it sits at a desk and works on a computer, wanders around the lab to mingle with its co-workers, and occasionally flies off to conferences on the other side of the world.

This new creature might seem rather alien to the average honey bee, but they have one important thing in common: both move pollen around. While real bees move organic specks that fertilise flowers, the new ones—actually human beings—carry packets of digital information.

"Think of people as bees," says Dave Snowdon, the researcher who developed the idea. "We move around from place to place, so why not use this movement to transfer information around the world just as bees move pollen from flower to flower?" He calls ...