Using Drones To Pollinate Flowers

Bees are one of the most important creatures on the planet, as they play a major role in helping plants grow and reproduce by pollination. And so we must protect them at all costs. But what if bees do become extinct one day? Scientists have been trying to think of alternatives to bees in case that happens. Just recently, some scientists have developed high-tech drones that blow soap bubbles to pollinate flowers.

It’s a “really cool” approach, says Henry Williams, a roboticist at the University of Auckland, who was not involved in the work. But some biologists are skeptical that drones will ever be an effective replacement for bees.
Several groups have devised devices that mimic pollinating honey bees. In 2017, Eijiro Miyako, a materials chemist at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, adapted a 4-centimeter-long toy drone to pollinate flowers. He and colleagues glued horsehairs to the underside of the drone and coated the hairs with a gel to make them stickier and more flexible. The idea was that, just as on a bee, the hairs would pick up pollen from one flower and deposit it on another. Steered by remote control, the drone pollinated lilies, but it damaged the flowers with its propellers.
Miyako visualized a way to fix that problem while blowing bubbles in a park with his 3-year-old son. The child had cried when Miyako used up the last of the bubble solution. To soothe his son, Miyako bought a toy bubble gun. Watching the stream of bubbles—and seeing one bump his son’s forehead—Miyako thought it might be a way to gently deliver pollen to flowers.

And so Miyako, along with his colleague, tested his soap bubble hypothesis.

Check out Science Magazine for more details about this bubbly study.

(Image Credit: Eijiro Miyako/ Science Magazine)


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you mean they're actually considering mechanical pollination instead of pesticide control?? Bees are far more reliable and will also pollinate millions of other flowers that each have the potential to make some genetics company rich so long as they're not forced into extinction by pesticide companies. No way. Viva antifa.
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The JFK assassination has an obvious, partial solution. It involves not Lee Harvey Oswald, but the mob and the John Birch Society -- who are connected through Clint Murchison, J. Edgar Hoover, and the CIA. For the details see my webpage at:
http://home.roadrunner.com/~markwrede/NonFic/PerennialMystery.html
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In 1963, no one lining the parade route was using a 'video camera'. They used 8mm and possibly 16mm film camera to shoot movies. The video camera wouldn't come into common usage outside a studio setting for another 15 years.
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I call BS on the Marfa lights. It's a fascinating phenomena, and I wouldn't blame Texas for building a viewing area. But Fata Morgana inversion layer mirages (a superior mirage type) are easily replicated and fairly easily tested, and even though there are some reports of lights that wouldn't follow that kind of phenomena, there are no credible photos or videos of non-compliant visages.

Anyway, the SPS from UTexas did a lot of work on this a couple years back, and some of it is published here:

http://ajp.aapt.org/resource/1/ajpias/v77/i8/p697_s1?isAuthorized=no

It explains well why they can't be seen close-up. Personally, I'd love to see them if I were in the area...meteorological phenomena are awesome!
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