bees
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US Department of Agriculture approves first-ever vaccine for honeybees
Biotech firm Dalan Animal Health recently developed a vaccine to protect honeybees from American Foulbrood disease, a bacteria that can kill entire hives.
Robot bees can crash into walls without taking damage
Tiny robotic fliers aren't exactly durable at present, but they may be tough critters before long. Harvard researchers have developed a RoboBee that uses soft, artificial muscles (really, actuators) to fly without taking damage. The robot can smack into walls, crash-land or even collide with fellow 'bees' without getting hurt. Soft-muscle fliers have existed before, but this is the first with enough power density and control to hover -- that is, it's not just flying wildly.
Insects could be extinct within a century, scientists say
Insects are dying so rapidly, they could disappear within 100 years, according to the first global scientific review on their decline. A third of species are endangered and more than 40 percent face the threat of extinction in the next few decades, according to the study, which was published in the Biological Conservation journal.
Bees with tiny sensor backpacks could help farmers track crops
Farmers can use drones to monitor their fields, but they have their limits when they can rarely fly for more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time. University of Washington researchers might have a smarter way: recruit some insect friends. They've developed sensor backpacks that are light enough (about 0.0035 ounces) and efficient enough to ride on a bumblebee, but capable enough to collect data for seven hours at a time over relatively long distances. You wouldn't have to replace packs very often, either, as they could just fly into their hives to wirelessly recharge and transmit data.
This tiny drone can pollinate flowers like a bee
As a species, bumblebees aren't doing well, so sadly, we may have to consider a future with fewer of the endangered insects. Humanity would be in trouble without these active pollinators, so Japanese scientists have created drones that mimic them by spreading pollen from plant to plant. Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology bought $100 drones and affixed patches of horsehair to the bottoms. They then applied liquid ion gels, which MIT Technology Review says are as sticky and moist as Post-It notes, to the horsehair. In tests, the drones were able to fly into the plants, grabbing and releasing pollen from the male and female parts of pink and white Japanese lilies.
ICYMI: How studying bees helped fix internet traffic
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The latest Golden Goose award goes to scientists who developed an algorithm to explain how worker bees collaborate to get honey to their hive. It turns out, that algorithm could be directly applied to solving peaks in demand in internet traffic, though it took ten years to be discovered. Meanwhile if you're into UAVs or don't like them, you should see the 500 aircraft array Intel put together, creating an aerial light display that could be controlled by two people (one was backup). The FAA had to grant a special dispensation for this bit of fun, so don't expect to get your hands on it anytime soon. You've gotta see the You've Got Mail video if you haven't already, and if you just need a mental break, may we recommend this cat video. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: Wetsuits will be modeled on the cutest sea creatures
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: MIT researchers are creating a two-layer wetsuit modeled off of the pelts of sea otters and beavers, who are able to stay warm in chilly water despite not having the layer of blubber that whales and dolphins have. Meanwhile bumblebees are being trained to pull strings to get a sweet reward. The ease with which they've taught each other is surprising scientists, who hadn't known the little guys could be trained. If you're interested in the origami bird that can be controlled with hand motions, that's here. And the video of Blue Origin being tested is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: Dolphins speak in sentences and brand new bee species
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists in the Ukraine say they tracked bottlenose dolphins and found that they speak in up to five-word sentences and politely listen to each other before responding. Since dolphins are pretty much the coolest thing on the planet (Japanese horror show notwithstanding), we are excited about the latest dolphin intelligence findings.
ICYMI: Improving pesticide's sticking abilities
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: MIT researchers created a kind of pesticide that is much more likely to stick on plant leaves because its additives are made of negatively and positively charged polymers that bond together. This means far less pesticide needs to be used for the same effect, and fewer pollutants are likely to get into the water system. If you're interested in watching the full dominoes video (and why wouldn't you be, that stuff is mesmerizing) you can find it here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: NASA hunts for life hidden in an asteroid
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: NASA is planning a trip to get a sample of the large asteroid Bennu and see if any organic materials can be found on it. If you remember hypercolor t-shirts, you'll want to know about an air pollution sensing shirt that changes color and patterns when carbon monoxide, radioactivity and particle pollutants are detected. You'll want to see this video from Japan showing a volcano's eruption with a thunderstorm inside. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
AI that picked Oscar winners could predict the next US president
There's strength -- and intelligence -- in numbers. Unanimous A.I., a Silicon Valley startup, has built a platform that taps into the collective knowledge of a group of people to form its own opinions, preferences and surprisingly accurate predictions. The software, dubbed UNU, successfully guessed last year's Oscar winners (11 out of 15 categories) and most recently predicted the winning horses in the Kentucky Derby. Now the "artificial swarm intelligence" is hosting its first AMA on Reddit, where it will respond to questions pertaining to the US presidential elections.
A common crop pesticide is making bees dumb
Poor honeybees. Back in 2010, the USDA found a possible link between pesticides used to kill varroa mites and colony collapse disorder. Now, researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand have discovered that they can "suffer severe learning and memory deficits" if they ingest even tiny doses of a common pesticide used to keep apples, broccoli, corn and other crops insect-free. That pesticide is a controversial chemical called chlorpyrifos. The Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California proposed banning or at least imposing heavy restrictions on its use in the past due to reports that it makes farm workers sick.
ICYMI: Becoming Thor, the future of beekeeping and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-215343{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-215343, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-215343{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-215343").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The FlowHive is a new bee colony rig that allows beekeepers to tap the honey easily by cranking open the honeycomb design, creating a channel down to the spout. Japanese inventors created a throwable robot that flies through the air as a sphere, then unfurls four legs to scuttle its way onward. And maker Alan Phan re-created the God Hammer aka Mjolnir aka Thor's cool hammer-- with an Arduino-controlled fingerprint scanner and a super-charged electromagnet.
Intel chips to help pinpoint cause of bee colonies' deaths
Researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) want to pinpoint the factors that lead to the mass death of honey bees everywhere, in what's being called as colony collapse disorder. In order to do so, it teamed up with Intel earlier this year to outfit healthy bees with an RFID "backpack" that's a third of their weight and has a battery that can generate power from vibration. CSIRO uses a Intel Edison-based system to monitor every 50 tags, comprised of an Atom processor, 1GB of memory, 5GB of storage, dual-band wireless WiFi and Bluetooth. They've already managed to tag around 10,000 bees in Tasmania, and the research is now ongoing.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Google's new HQ, folding bikes and fancy beehives
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Buildings are among the biggest energy users, but new developments in the design world could help change that. ArchiBlox recently unveiled Australia's first carbon-positive prefab home -- in other words, the house produces more energy than it uses. The gorgeous 800-square-foot structure is now on display in Melbourne's City Square. In other architecture news, Google just unveiled plans to build a giant bubble in Mountain View! The new Googleplex headquarters will be a biosphere-filled utopia designed by Heatherwick Studio and BIG. Speaking of BIG, the Danish architecture firm recently unveiled plans for a luminescent, geodesic dome biomass power plant. The rainbow-colored dome wouldn't just produce green energy; it would also serve as a public park.
SMITE introduces new playable god Ah Muzen Cab
Hi-Rez Studios' SMITE already has a formidable roster of gods and goddesses from around the world, but the devs have just revealed yet another addition: Ah Muzen Cab, Mayan god of -- get this -- bees. That's right, SMITE has officially introduced the single most terrifying entity to ever exist outside the realm of Lovecraftian horror. Ah Muzen Cab seems to fill the role of a ranged support class, and he has a number of abilities that make it easier for his teammates to bring death to the enemy. His passive ability, named simply "Bees," causes enemies hit by some of his abilities to be harassed by bees, which deal damage over time and reveal affected enemies' locations on the minimap. He can also place beehives, which grant Ah Muzen Cab healing over time plus buffs to movement and attack speed while near a hive. To see all the nasty, bee-centric tricks Ah Muzen Cab has up his sleeves, check out the official reveal trailer after the cut.
Honey, at home: Philips urban beehive shrinks your ecological footprint, increases holes on belt
It's a first-world issue: running out of honey when we need just a little more to sweeten up that bowl of oatmeal or cup of coffee. What we need is a constant supply of the golden stuff, and Philips has thankfully come up with this urban beehive to provide precisely that. It's the latest addition to the company's germaphobe-unfriendly "microbial home" concept. The system is half flowerpot, half hive, with bees able to travel between flower pollination and your domestic honey factory their honeycomb house. Honey can be 'tapped' from the base, with a smoking system in place to "calm the bees" before opening the hive. Now, if Philips could fashion something to keep us in a constant supply of maple syrup, then maybe even bakery dreams have a future, after all. %Gallery-139021%
Bee venom used to create ultra-sensitive explosives sensor
We knew that well-trained bees were capable of sniffing out dynamite and other explosives, but researchers at MIT have now come up with a slightly less militant way to use our winged friends as bomb detectors. A team of chemical engineers at the school recently developed a new, ultra-sensitive sensor that's sharp enough to detect even one molecule of TNT. Their special ingredient? Bee venom. Turns out, a bee's poison contains protein fragments called bombolitins, that react to explosive compounds. To create the detector, researchers applied these bombolitins to naturally fluorescent carbon nanotubes. Whenever an explosive molecule binds with the protein fragments, the interaction will alter the wavelength of the carbon cylinder's fluorescent light. The shift is too small for the naked eye to pick up on, but can be detected using specially designed microscopes. If it's ever developed for commercial use, the sensor could provide a more acute alternative to the spectrometry-based detectors used at most airport security checkpoints. At the moment, however, the technology isn't quite ready to be deployed on a widespread basis, so feel free to keep on living in fear. Full PR after the break.
Phat Loot Phriday: Band of Bees
"You're serious?" Lolegolas asked his friend. "A deadly bee weapon." Throgg shook his head as he flipped the ring around in his hand. "A ring, really, though it's a great damage item for people who use strength in combat. It's even got a little magic to help your mastery of combat and get you moving a little faster." "Bees," Lolegolas said again, his voice dripping with shock. "My god." "I think it's time to put it on," Throgg said. He swallowed. "We few. We happy few. We band of honey-based flying bugs. We Band of Bees." "No!" Lolegolas gasped, wrapping his fingers around the orc's hand. "Not the bees! Please, not the bees!" Band of Bees Type: Ring Strength: 190 Stamina: 286 Equip: Increases your haste rating by 127 Equip: Increases your mastery rating by 127 How to get it: You can pick up the Band of Bees for a mere 1,250 valor points. How to get rid of it: The Band of Bees sells for 5 gold, 34 silver, and 34 copper. Phat Loot Phriday brings you the scoop on some of the most ... interesting ... loot in the World of Warcraft, often viewed through the eyes of the stalwart Throgg and indelible Lolegolas. Suggest items you think we should feature by emailing mikeg@wowinsider.com.
Swarm Light is an $180k LED chandelier controlled by an iPhone
This thing you see in the video on the next page (and in the picture above) is called the "Swarm Light." It's a series of little LEDs hung in sequence along three clusters of grids, lit up in order by a computer to display simulated collective movement, like a swarm of bees. It's very interesting, both as a display for a programmed algorithm, and just as an art project. All together, the display costs $180,000 -- no small chunk of change. If you do watch the video, you can see that the whole thing is run by an iPhone. rAndom International created their own internal app for Apple's device to run their various installations, and the iPhone app can dim the lights, adjust them to ambient light conditions and switch through the various modes. Just another awesome use of the iPhone.
