Bees’ days are numbered — and with their imminent extinction so goes the entirety of Earth’s functioning ecosystem.
In order to avoid total environmental catastrophe, science has been trying to figure out how to keep plants pollinated once all the bees are dead. The latest contender is itty, bitty drones.
Scientists took a miniature, hummingbird-sized drone and attached a strip of fuzz outfitted with horsehair paintbrush bristles that are coated in a sticky gel. The gel, which also acts as a camouflage, lets the drone pick up and release pollen grains from flower to flower.
The study of the drones’ efficacy was published Thursday in the journal Chem.
However, the drones obviously can’t produce honey, and since humans would be needed to maneuver them, it proves to be an impractical solution – for now. Advances in technology should eventually allow swarms of drones to operate on their own, using GPS and artificial intelligence, similar to a plotline on the show “Black Mirror.”
Bees pollinate more than $15 billion worth of crops in the US every year, and the agriculture industry employs 1.4 billion people worldwide. A 2016 study found that 44.1 percent of all honeybee colonies in the US had died out. And in February, 2016 the United Nations estimated that 40 percent of pollinators — including bees and butterflies — are at risk of extinction.