Japanese tinkerers created a tiny, flower-pollinating drone for a world without insects.
Bee populations are in decline in many parts of the world.
While the reasons bees are in trouble aren’t yet well understood, the problem has some technologists investigating whether drones could fly flower-spreading pollen instead.
The latest effort comes from Japan, where investigators at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science, in Tsukuba, were looking for new uses for sticky substances called ionic liquid gels.
These have unusual physical properties.
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.
Project leader Eijiro Miyako claims this was the first time a drone pollinated a flower.
Scientists are also working on genetically modified cyborg dragonflies that can be controlled by humans.
Technology could potentially be used on bees as well.
