Scientists Are Building Bee-Like Drones to Fight the Coming Bee-Pocalypse
From Gizmodo
The bees are dying globally at an alarming rate. As we continue to come to grips with the problems of our dystopian future, it’s probably as good a time as ever to dream up some solutions with an idea straight out of the dystopian show Black Mirror: pollinating drones.Read more here http://gizmodo.com/scientists-are-building-pollinator-drones-in-preparatio-1792171458We rely heavily on bees and other species to pollinate our plants, and though there isn’t global data, there have been enough local die-offs to spark widespread concern, according to a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Now, a team of scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan have engineered drones featuring a specially-engineered adhesive that can pick up and deposit pollen.
The team is not looking to replace natural pollinators, but to assist them in their pollination efforts. They think that in a future, when bee populations are lower, drones like these might be able to relieve the stress of having to do all of the pollination.
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Very cool! I'm a huge drone fanatic! I really appreciate articles like this! Keep it coming! Up-voted for sure!
amazing to think that flowers have adapted to rely on bees and now as we kill them off with pesticides we have to adapt to their loss by employing pollinating drones....Weird
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