Drones Equipped with Bubble Guns Pollinate Flowers as Bees Decline
Alarm bells are ringing for bees and they are only getting louder. Bee populations have declined rapidly in recent years due to climate change, diseases, and pesticides; affecting wildlife, agriculture, and the economy since bees pollinate more than $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. every year.
And on the subject of pollinators, bees are unbeatable creatures. However, engineers and scientists try to mimic their peculiar ways anyway. Researchers have been working on a high-tech alternative that uses drones to blow pollen-laden soap bubbles to pollinate flowers.
The idea came to Eijiro Miyako, a materials chemist at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, while he was blowing bubbles with his 3-year-old son. That was not the first time he was meddling with bees, drones, and flowers, however.
The idea came to Eijiro Miyako, a materials chemist at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, while he was blowing bubbles with his 3-year-old son. That was not the first time he was meddling with bees, drones, and flowers, however.
Adamant on fixing it ever since, the turning point for the innovation was a toy bubble gun. In that park, watching the stream of bubbles drifting through the air and one of them bumping into his son’s forehead, Miyako was struck with this idea of delicate bubbles delivering the pollen.
In order to test this idea, he and another colleague looked at numerous surfactants and picked one with the least effect on germination.
