honeybees
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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.
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.
German airports use honeybees to test air quality
You could get one of those fancy gadgets to monitor air quality as you trundle about your neck of the woods, but if you're more concerned for the environment's well-being than your own, all you apparently need is an active beehive. Eight German airports are presently using honeybees to test the air for toxins by shipping their honey to a local lab -- and for four years running, that honey's tested just fine. Last year, Dusseldorf International Airport produced 200 jars of the stuff. We wouldn't pay extra for airport honey, mind you, but we suppose we'd give it a try...
