“HOW ABOUT THEM APPLES?”: ARTIFICIAL POLLINATORS
Over the years of watching and reporting on the GMO issue on this website, one of the things that many brought to my attention by sharing various articles and studies, is the apparent linkage between CCD(colony collapse disorder), as the populations of honey bees colonies and other pollinators have dramatically declined since the introduction of GMO foods and the heavy pesticides they involve. As a result, I have also blogged about the latest gimick to "repair" the damage: artificial drones as pollinators. It is, after all, "no big deal" if the world's pollinator population declines or simply goes extinct, after all, they only keep most of the world's plant life going, and most of its food supply going. No big deal, especially if one has artificial pollinators waiting in the wings. Indeed, as I've previously blogged, there were scientists actually seriously proposing this as a means to get around the phenomenon of colony collapse disorder.
Well, according to this article shared by Mr. T.M., it's now actually been accomplished:
Researchers use drone to pollinate a flower
The opening paragraphs say it all:
Researchers in Japan have successfully used a tiny drone to pollinate an actual flower, a task usually accomplished by insects and animals.
The remote-controlled drone was equipped with horsehairs coated with a special gel, which the researchers say was crucial to the process."This is the world's first demonstration of pollination by an artificial robotic pollinator," said Eijiro Miyako of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan, one of the authors of the study, which was published in the journal Chem.
But many pollinators are under threat, particularly insects like bees and butterflies. They belong to a group -- invertebrate pollinators -- in which 40 percent of species face extinction, according to the same report.The drone is an attempt to address this problem: "The global pollination crisis is a critical issue for the natural environment and our lives," the authors wrote in the study.
The peculiarity of this project is that it focuses on the pollination process, rather than the construction of a robotic bee.As the authors note, "practical pollination has not yet been demonstrated with the aerial robots currently available."However, pollination was achieved on a very large flower, and the drone was not autonomous: "I believe that some form of artificial intelligence and GPS would be very useful for the development of such automatic machines in future," said Miyako.Much work remains to be done before we can emulate the complex behavior of insects and animals: "There is little chance this can replace pollinators," said Christina Grozinger, Director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State University.
13 Comments
Help the Community Grow
Please understand a donation is a gift and does not confer membership or license to audiobooks. To become a paid member, visit member registration.
crichton covered this directly and indirectly in “prey”
state of fear too.
weird how he turned suddenly neocon for state of fear, met with w and promptly got cancered.
There is method to madne$$.
http://dailymotion.com/video/xctztn_dime-to-retire_fun
I read a science fiction novel that dealt with a situation like this. You control the pollinators you control the food supply you control the population. Full spectrum enslavement. I think the title of the novel was “‘Crisis On Cerbeus” but then our manic elites have never let reality interfere with their lust for power.
It would seem in their effort to keep their bloodlines as pure as possible, the elite have inbred to the point that common sense is now extinct among them.
and empathy, ‘what’s love got to do with it?” (/Tina Turning)
plant love – “what’s bees got to do with it?”
See Black Mirror series 3 episode 6 for when artificial pollinators go bad, along with other themes….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated_in_the_Nation_%28Black_Mirror%29
All good and well until someone… or something, decides somewhere that the best way to pollinate the flowers is to kill of the disease thats killing all the plant life and insects.. and is no equipped with GPS and a swarm of mini killers..
Or someone somewhere has a switch they can pull and political dissidents around the world start dying from ‘small drone shaped holes in the head’ suicides… (how fast can these things fly?)
“Your comment is awaiting moderation.” First of the day…
goshawks – March 24, 2017 at 6:09 am.
There was an interesting scene in the SF movie “Avatar” (by James Cameron) that could relate to this blog. (Spoiler alert!)
In the movie, the rebellious scientist (played by Sigourney Weaver) attempts to ‘link’ to the planet’s “Gaia” consciousness and then into a native body. However, she dies before the process is completed, due to her previous injuries. Later, it becomes apparent that this planetary-consciousness has become aware of the deadly parasites (Earth humans) upon it – presumably, through the Weaver character’s experience – and responds en-mass in a climatic battle.
So, I am curious whether (a) planet Earth has a Gaia-like aspect, (b) this aspect can ‘learn’ of parasites, and (c) this aspect has a way of uniting ‘Mother Nature’ against the parasites when needed. I can see a title now: “Gaia vs The Archons” or “Gaia vs The AI” or “Gaia vs The Anunnaki”. Grab your popcorn…
Just think of when there’s a full moon, the higher rates of violence and craziness for police and emergency rooms. How good it feels to walk barefoot in sand or doing anything in nature versus using the computer. The interconnected magnetic field between earth and the sun creates frequencies that affect the human heart, brain and nervous system and works both ways. As for b & c, unless our hearts begin to send more love to each other and all of creation I do believe we the parasites/virus will be given a dose of penicillin. I hope it’s true because I really don’t want to see our children living as slaves under constant surveillance and never knowing what a real bee looks like, sounds like or even the pain of being stung, ouch.
Well said Sandygirl.
The Great Flood?