WEBVTT - The Future of Bees 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:15.600 Forward Thinking. Hello everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.400 podcast that looks at the future and says, your grin's 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.280 the sweetest that I've ever seen. I'm Lauren vocal Ba, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.040 and I'm Joe McCormick, and our host Jonathan Strickland is 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.240 not with us today. He's out on vacation in the 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.639 Fabulous Ireland. The fabulous Ireland. Yes, the the Ireland, not 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.920 in Ireland, not just any old Ireland, that one specific one. Yes, 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.440 we hope he's having a wonderful time there. We're pretty 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.960 sure he is, according to social media, being chased by bees, 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.880 which has so much to do with our topic today. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.680 We are talking about the future of bees, barring any 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.880 any terrible future be tragedies, which I seriously am I'm 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.880 hoping will not occur. Bees are awesome and we hope 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:00.880 that they will have a very bright future. There's some 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.480 slight concern about that, but also that they can be 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:08.119 used for these incredible technology purposes. Yeah. In fact, we 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.000 were inspired to do this episode by a Facebook message 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.640 we received from a show listener named Taylor. Yeah. He 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.240 sent us a note and explained that he is a 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.720 technician who works with bees in his field, and I'm 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:22.920 going to quote part of his message here because it 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:27.240 was so exciting. Okay, here we go. Bees have an 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.240 unimaginably keen sense of smell, so keen that they're able 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:34.760 to detect compounds at levels our five thousand dollar machine 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.880 can't even get close to. Our team has trained bees 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.280 to sniff out chemical markers of plant and human pathogens 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.479 in the lab, as well as invasive weeds and insects 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.920 on the landscape while listening to this podcast, because he 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.840 was he was writing in about a podcast about having 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.320 additional senses in which I had mentioned being excited about bees. 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.200 While listening to this podcast, I was conditioning a group 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.640 of bees to detect and respond to the trail aramone 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.720 of argentine ants so they can be used to locate 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.360 their nests. We work with a team based in Montana 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.160 called B Alert Technologies. There's a company in Montana called 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.240 B Alert Technologies, y'all who have famously trained bees to 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.839 sniff out land mines by training them on the scent 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.160 of TNT, much like they do with dogs. Currently, only 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.880 be sense of smell is better, and they don't trigger 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.720 the landlines when they stand on them. In Sentinel are 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.360 another B training company who are based in the UK, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.120 and I believe are working on border security applications for 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.800 B based bio sensors. He also linked us to this 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:41.760 hilarious promotional video for the in Sentinel B Sniffer. Yeah, 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.040 it's it's basically a B dust buster, um like like 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:47.880 this thing that is filled with bees. And we'll talk 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.000 about it more at the end of the podcast. The 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.840 company might not exist anymore. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.280 One little note. The g c m S machine, the 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:04.640 machine that Taylor mentioned, that's a gas chromatography mass spectrometry machine, 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.679 which is a type of machine that's used to sort 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.400 of like take a sample and figure out what are 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.119 all the different chemicals inside it. Sure, it usually gasifies 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.239 or basically burns a sample in order to pick out 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:18.960 what's in it. Right, And so what Taylor was saying 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:23.079 is that the bees can sense chemical compounds better than 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.160 this really expensive machine. So let's talk a little bit 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.960 more about why bees are really cool in terms of 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.920 both their amazing anatomy and also their their place in 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.440 this proverbial circle of life on planet Earth. You know, 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:44.880 I saw a movie called The Happening that was somewhat interesting. 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.320 I have not seen that film. Actually, well, I won't 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.560 spoil it for anyone, but there's a certain kingdom of life. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.880 Not going to say which one, but it's not animals 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.440 that try to kill everybody. But there's a quote at 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.520 the beginning of the movie. We're saying something like that 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.080 if the if the bee were to disappear, humanity would 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.880 be extinct within some short period of time, like a 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:14.040 couple of years. Uh. That's perhaps overstated, but not entirely 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.200 completely off base, all right, because about a third of 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.599 the world's food supply is created when honey bees pollinate 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.120 those crops. Um. Some crops in fact, depend entirely on 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.279 bees for pollination. Almonds are the prime example here in 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.600 the United States. Without bees, we wouldn't have California almonds, No, 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.240 I know, right, Almonds are a huge part of my 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.640 personal well being, so they're they're very important. They are 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.480 very important. But if you want to know a lot 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.720 about bees, I recommend the article how Bees Work on 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.280 How Stuff Works dot Com um a k A. Our 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.840 parent company UM, which was written by the esteemed Tracy V. Wilson. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.920 Who currently podcasts on stuff emised in history class, and 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.920 who says, and I quote, bees are the greatest. Well, 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:03.719 she's right, she is, She's always right. Um, So cool 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.240 things about bees cool be effects. They can remember patterns 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.120 like colors that that signal food sources, and recognize symmetry, 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.560 a thing that is normally reserved for higher life forms 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.280 than insects, those little insect brains. Right. Um. They can 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.120 navigate by the sun, whether it's cloudy or not, because 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.119 they can detect polarized light, so even when the sun's 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.880 not out, they know where it is. Um. They have 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:32.640 an internal clock, and they communicate via dancing. Um. They've 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.159 got yeah, yeah, they they've got they've got the round dance, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:38.880 which is for nearby food and basically just says like food, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.039 y'all go out and smell for it. Um. And then 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.719 they've got the waggle dance for far away food, in 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.600 which they indicate the direction of the food that they 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:51.080 have found in relation to the current and changing position 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.680 of the sun. That's pretty cool. I can't do that. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.719 That's cool for many reasons. Number one, that that's pretty 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.480 advanced in terms of sensing where things are and being 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.080 able to communicate that. Number two, that's very social, right, right, 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.200 being being able to remember that and wanting to go 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:09.160 back to to your hive and tell a whole bunch 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:10.640 of other things about it so that they can go 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.160 out and do that thing. That's really good for everybody. Yeah. 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.680 I think it's just amazing that we have like communities 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.320 of bees that communicate with each other that well, when 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.040 when a bee is such a you know, it was 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.960 an insect right there, there are I found out during 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.960 this research some I mean actually a lot of bees. 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.640 I think only fifteen of the world's population of bees 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:33.760 live in hives like this. The rest of them are 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.800 rogue bees that might that might hang out around a 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.760 couple other bees for kind of like protection services and 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.000 stuff like that. But they yellow sharks. Yeah. Yeah. Furthermore, 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.040 bees have, as Taylor said, an incredibly good sense of smell. Um. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.680 They can positively identify substances in the air at a 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.840 few parts per trillion. I don't think I can do that. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.960 We know humans cannot. You cannot do that, Joe, neither 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.400 can I. Um. And and bees and another thing that 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.080 probably you don't do. Bees make honey from flower nectar 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.200 by swallowing and regurgitating it a whole bunch um, thus 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.680 sapping the water content from about in the nectar two 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.800 about which winds up in honey um, and also adding 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.320 enzymes from their mouths that help kill germs, which helps 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.160 give honey that terrific antibacterial property. So it is true 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.800 that honey is be vomit. That's delicious. It's the tastiest 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:33.560 be vomit. So so so these these are reasons why 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.320 I'm completely obsessed with bees. Well, I really like bees too, 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.640 But Lauren, what is the outlook for bees? Are they 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.480 going to remain happy and healthy and buzzing about on 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.920 our planet as they do? Now there's some concern about that. Um, 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.920 there's this you guys might have heard in the news, 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:55.520 something called colony collapse disorder. Um, and worry about what 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.400 this thing could mean for for agriculture and for even 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:03.400 the environment of the entire planet at large. Um And Okay, So, 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.240 so here's the deal with colony collapse disorders. Since two 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.880 thousand six, honey bee keepers have been reporting record numbers 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:14.840 of be losses every year, like thirty of their hives. 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.360 Though the average is on the lower end of that, still, 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.160 it's really significant. UM. According to the U s d 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.080 a B. Populations in the US have declined from some 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.280 five million hives in the nineties to only about half 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.640 of that today. And this isn't from poisoning from insecticides, 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.839 for example, which produces really telltale signs a k. A. 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:38.920 Giant piles of dead bees right around the hives, but 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.079 but from this thing that we're calling colony collapse disorder 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.840 or sometimes disappearing disease. And that's because the signs of 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.560 this aren't dead bees but rather missing bees UM and 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.559 worker bees specifically, the queen and her male drones will 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.360 still be occupying their hives, and the honey will still 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.240 be plentiful in those hives, but the workers just sort 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.000 of leave or or get lost during the winter season. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.200 Come spring, the colony dies. Okay, so this is sort 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.160 of like if you're out on the ocean and you 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.440 find a cruise ship floating there. It's not like you 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.960 find it full of dead bodies and all their money missing. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.079 It's like the ship's just empty. It's like Roanoke. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:18.280 it's just everything's gone and no one knows why. So 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.800 spooky UM. And there are records of this going back 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.560 through time, with specific episodes having been recorded in uh 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.679 the eighteen eighties, in nineteen o three, in the nineteen twenties, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.640 and in the nineteen sixties. But it started becoming more 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.040 widespread in the nineteen eighties, which happens to be round 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.640 about when a bunch of new pathogens and pests entered 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.320 the United States. So do we have any idea what's 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.720 causing it? Potential causes that have been looked at have included, um, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:51.640 a whole bunch of different stuff, okay, pesticides, parasitic intestinal mites, UM, 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:57.400 particularly cold winters, viruses, UM, contaminated or or scarce water supplies, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.480 pollen or nectar scarcity, UM or kind of bad pollen 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:06.680 like sort of nutritionally cheap pollen, the twinkies of pollen, um, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.520 and and various stressors to to the hive, like like 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.080 overcrowding or being moved around too much. So the message 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.200 I'm getting is that we really have no idea. Yeah no, 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.880 no one's been sure which of these are which combination 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.520 is causing this particular phenomenon. Okay, well, oh yeah, So 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.520 I'd imagine that all of these things might be partially true, 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:27.640 but we don't know the main cause. Oh sure, and 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.440 you know, any one of these will certainly cause damage 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.839 to a hive. But but why bees are just disappearing 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.840 like this has generally been a mystery, so we still 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:42.960 have no idea. Well, as as of May nine, a 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.600 report was published in the Bulletin of Insectology, which is 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:48.840 a thing that exists, which is very exciting to me. 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.000 I mean, it was published by a team of researchers 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:55.040 from the Harvard School of Public Health, and they were 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:57.079 talking about this research that they did in which they 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.880 introduced non legal levels of particul pularly suspected insecticides to 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:06.800 a few b colonies and also studied some some control colonies. Okay, 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.720 so so good research practices. Yeah. And in one group 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.040 of the insecticide exposed colonies were lost due to this 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:21.080 colony collapse disorder. And in another study of the insecticide 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.680 exposed colonies were lost. So I imagine that was a 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.240 lot more than the control groups. Yeah, the control groups 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.920 were not lost at all. Zero of them experienced colony 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.440 collapse disorder. Um. One of the control groups in that 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:40.720 study died due to a mite infestation. UM. But overall, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.440 other than that, the pathogen and parasite levels across the 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:49.800 studying control groups, which contradicts previous ideas that insecticides are 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.480 responsible for UM for making bees more susceptible to to 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.400 disease or to these stomach mites. So what on earth 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.280 are these insecticides? They're from this one group of insecticides 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.840 called neo nicotinoids, which yes, are related to nicotine and 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.760 UM and include a few very commonly used pesticides here 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.079 in the US. At any rate, because they've been banned 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:17.240 starting as of December for a two year research period 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.640 in the European Union due to this suspicion that they're 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:25.040 harming honey bees, which are important UM. Also that this 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.839 research that the kids at Harvard were doing indicates that 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:32.480 colder winters might be part of it UM as keeping 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:37.160 bees warm and neutralized, full of full of good, happy, 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.360 healthy food fed yes well not just fed, but fed 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.760 with the right kinds of nutrients has had good anecdotal 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.440 results among beekeepers there. There's apparently like a b protein 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.720 shake sort of thing. It's called it's called Mega bee. 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.200 It was it was developed. It was developed by the U. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:13:01.559 S d A's Agricultural Research Service. I know, right, beef 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.200 up your buzz. You need to be on the marketing 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:09.000 team for this chick. Um. So we're laughing a lot 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.720 because bees are a little bit hilarious. Um. Also, the 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.360 word be is really hilarious. You just append the word 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.920 be too, basically anything like mega, and it suddenly becomes 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.079 really terrific. But this entire thing is very, very sad 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.360 and very scary. And I mean because I certainly don't 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.160 want almonds to go away or any of the other 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.240 important crops. I don't want bees to go anywhere. But 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.640 if they do, do we have any kind of backup plan? 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.600 That's what I wondered when Lauren said we were going 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.360 to do this episode. So I actually looked up artificial bees, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:44.800 and what do you know, Bull's eye artificial bees. Yeah. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.480 So the March issue of Scientific American had an article 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:54.240 by Robert Wood, Radika nag Pool, and guyon Way where 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:58.400 these three scientists discuss their work in creating artificial bees. 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.920 The goal is to create a b sized flying robot 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.560 that can be programmed to work together with thousands of 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:09.400 others to form an artificial hive and autonomously pollinate crops. 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:14.680 Their project is called Robobes, which I don't know if 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.520 they have to feed the robo bees megabe, but hopefully 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.120 they just have to feed it oil can huh Yeah, 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.920 I mean I don't imagine that these robobes also create honey. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.120 It's probably just the pollination service, right, I don't know. 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.720 I mean the crazy things we're doing with robotics these days. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.240 I didn't see any mentions of honey. But so instead 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.200 of building thousands of a little like quad rotor drones, 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:42.800 they're actually trying to mimic the muscle movements of real insects. 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:47.080 So these artificial bees will have airfoil wings that flat 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.200 based on actuators designed to work like muscles. And if 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.800 you didn't see, because you don't have video of this, 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.960 I was just flapping my arms. Obviously, the bees need 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.800 some kind of guidance system and behavior control, so we're 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.720 talking about environmental sensors and a navigation computer, and of 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.000 course every robot needs a power source. All of this 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:11.360 on a flying robot it's like the size of a coin. Yeah, 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.520 that's a pretty ambitious project. I'll be very interested to 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.440 see where they go with it. So this is actually 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:23.080 really cool for the fields of robotics and miniaturization and 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.440 it's even gonna be really interesting for the things we 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.960 learned from trying to perfect algorithms to mimic like the 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.760 emergent behavior of a bee colony, right, because I think 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.200 we're saying earlier it's a it's a very social insect, right, 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.760 So I'm thinking we're probably gonna learn a lot about 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:42.160 bees just by trying to mimic bees. But also the 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.880 the project's Harvard website mentions that these could be used 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:51.120 for search and rescue, hazardous environment exploration, military surveillance, high 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:56.880 resolution weather and climate mapping, and traffic monitoring. So I 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.920 don't know, maybe there's just overshooting, but that's what they claim. 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.200 But no, Hey, you know, i'd say that's really cool. 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.920 But what we hope is that we don't have to 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.760 use something like that for pollination, right, because hopefully these 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.120 new findings out of the Harvard School of Public Health 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.920 well will lead to the discovery of the particular mechanism 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.480 responsible for colony collapse. You're talking about the study from 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:26.200 this year you mentioned earlier, correct, right, not the Robob's research. Well, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.040 I mean either either way, but at any rate, a 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:32.400 lot more research is certainly going on. Um, there's there's 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.720 a project for smart hives. Okay, it's this open source 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.560 bee hive project. It was funded just the spring through 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.680 indie go go, and it offered a few things to 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.960 help small time beekeepers both succeed and connect with each 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.280 other for larger research purposes. So first, it offered hives 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.360 um either either pre fabricated flat pack hives on delivery 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.000 or blueprints for hives that can be plugged into computer 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.800 numerical control systems, which are automated machining tools that will 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.080 create the pieces for you. So it's basically like ikea 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:08.240 bee hive, right um. And then also in addition to 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.160 that some some open source sensor kits to assess hive 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.520 health and activity and also to connect up to database 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.200 to track larger trends throughout a population. That's really cool. Yeah. 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.000 There's also a group of researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.760 and Industrial Research Organization and they've been taking this a 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.879 step further. They've they've been gluing these tiny r f 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.560 I D sensors two bees. No, I assume you don't 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.200 actually mean gluing. Oh no, I totally mean gluing, like 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.360 like with glue. Oh yeah, they're really small sensors. They're 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.840 like two point five millimeters square, which is about one 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.679 tenth of an inch, and they weigh only five milligrams, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.280 which is about of a bees total carrying capacity, So 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:50.560 there's still plenty of room in there for pollen and whatever. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.160 It's like having a tiny backpack. Okay. And and the 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.440 the idea here is that they'll be able to monitor 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.840 and model be behavior and then watch for abnormalities and 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.600 identify causes and maybe even stop problems with a hive 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.000 before they get so serious and cause a collapse. So 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:10.680 how they do this? All right? The r f I 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.840 D chips will transmit data to to a logger when 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:15.639 they come in close to one, and not like a 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.560 guy who's cutting down trees, but but you know a 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.120 data logger okay? Um? And how how how you glue 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.720 a sensor to a bee? I'd imagine first you stop 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:29.040 feeding the megabee because let's face it, somebody on megabee. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.679 Nobody's gluing nothing to me. Brother. Oh yeah, no, you 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:33.359 don't want to hulked out be when you're trying to 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.160 glue something to it. Absolutely not. Um. Well, okay, so 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:38.920 so first you're gonna put them to sleep temporarily. By 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.919 refrigerating them, you drop their their internal temperature down to 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.520 like like five degrees celsius or forty one degrees fair 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:46.119 in hight for about five minutes, and it just kind 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.600 of takes a nap. And then and then you shave 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:55.680 the bees. You have to shave them to save them. Well, 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.680 I apparently, especially young bees are really quite hairy, which 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:04.520 can cause a problem with the glue. So if somebody 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:06.639 was going to put duct tape on my face, I 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.639 wanted to shave my beard first. Absolutely, That's exactly it. Okay, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.840 So so you you shave the bees and then you 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.600 use tweezers to glue this tiny little sensor to its back. 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.160 It's it's serious, wonderful research. And they're and they're looking 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.680 to improve upon the process that they already have. Okay, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.359 they're they're looking to miniature as the sensors um and 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.920 also increase their their capacity so they can track stuff 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.679 like temperature and atmospheric compounds and even generate the energy 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.800 that they need to operate and transmit this data long 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.080 distances rather than just off a you know a little 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.000 kind of fist bump r f I D thing um 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.280 from the energy of the beating wings of the insect. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.359 That's pretty cool. I gotta say, gluing things two bees 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:57.440 to save the bees lives by learning about bees. It's 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:02.720 a good project. Now I want to know something else, Lauren. Yes. 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.959 Taylor mentioned in his message to us the inspiration for 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.679 this show that bees could actually be used for a 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.560 lot more than just making honey. So so, bees have 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.600 this really strong sense of smell, right, and they can 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.600 be trained to stick out their tongue or Okay, it's 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.600 it's technically their their nectar collecting tube a k a. 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.640 Their proboscis um when they detect an odor that they've 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.399 been trained to associate with a food reward, and that 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.000 odor can be any number of things, like like drugs 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.639 like methampthetamines, are cocaine, or chemical residue left by or 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.880 used in bombs. This is exactly, well, it's not exactly. 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.040 This is similar to the way that you would train 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.359 dogs to sniff out these these common things, except their bees. 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.080 Except their bees. Is it harder to train bees than 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:51.720 it is to train dogs. It's actually really easy to 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.080 train bees. They are so excited about food that it's 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.320 really quite easy to get them and they and they 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.760 have such a good sense of smell that it's quite 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:01.439 easy the two. I mean, once you train them for 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.160 one thing, I think I think it's hard to train 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.679 them for something else. Yeah, so Taylor actually sent us 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:09.159 a video. We mentioned it earlier in the episode. I 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:14.520 think of this one. Particular companies UH promotional video on 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.439 YouTube for how to use bees to sniff things. And 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:22.680 they load bees into these cartridges like Ammo cartridges, little 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.280 cassette tape boxes sort of, and they stuff them in 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.800 a thing that looks like a dust buster. Gently, they 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:33.200 gently stuff, they don't stuff, they place them in the thing. 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.840 These are trained bees that have been trained like the 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:41.119 Pavlovian reaction, like smelling cocaine means that I'm about to 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.560 get food, So they stick their tongues out hungrily when 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.920 they smell cocaine. And then you can stick this dust 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:52.240 buster full of trained bees into a bag and say 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.119 like does this have drugs, bombs, or aliens in it? 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.640 Whatever it is you've trained them to sniff that. That's 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.560 what this video proposed. I thought it was really cool. 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.680 It almost seems like a hoax. It's so weird. Yeah, well, 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.040 I think it's real. Now, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:10.960 sure it's real. Um. And the and the way that 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.160 this kind of be dustbuster works is that you use 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:17.240 digital imaging on the inside, you know, you know, you 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.000 get like a little digital camera right up in all 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:22.520 the bees faces, um and and then use pattern pattern 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.880 recognition software to tell when they're sticking their proboscus is out. Okay, 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:33.439 becam be cam probos cam. But and they're not the 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.560 only people who have been working on this, Okay, So 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:39.600 even if that video is just too good to be true, 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.680 there are other companies that are actually definitely doing this. Yeah, 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.960 Like DARPA has funded projects into this kind of thing. 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.200 They they funded a project that trained bees to swarm 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:53.600 around bomb chemicals instead of flowers. Um. In small areas, 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:55.199 you can just watch them and see where they go. 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:57.439 But in large areas, they fitted the bees with we 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.359 little radio transmitters so that they could try get from 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:04.760 a distance. That's that's some metal gear, solid stuff. And 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:07.239 and right, I mean, you know, you know, bees have 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:09.600 an equal sense of smell to dogs. Some some people 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:11.040 claim that they're a little bit better. I have not 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:14.399 read research confirming that specifically, so I'm not going to 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.600 say one way or another. But you know these are 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:21.960 maybe less good save for airports. Um, I wouldn't want 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:25.680 to swarm of bees in an airport personally, why not? 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.360