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RoboBees? RoboBees to the Rescue
As you’ve probably read in the news, bee populations worldwide have been decimated by something called “colony collapse disorder.” It’s unclear what has caused this scourge—it could be pesticides or parasites or the environment or all three. Biologist and epidemiologists are looking for a cure, but in the meantime, how can we effectively pollenate our crops? The answer might be drones… and I don’t just mean male bees. I mean robots. Scientists at Harvard have created a “RoboBee,” a mini drone that weighs only about 80 milligrams—that’s one-thirtieth the weight of a U.S. penny. Its wings were designed to mimic those of the hover fly—those tiny insects you’ve seen that look like bees or wasps—but beat their wings so quickly that they seem to be suspended in space. The RoboBee beats its wings over 100 times a second. But in order to stay so small and light, it can’t rely on motors or gears to accomplish the feat. Instead, it uses something called “piezoelectricity.” Piezoelectric materials can convert electricity into motion. Electricity is fed to the RoboBee through wires and stimulates tiny strips of a piezoelectric ceramic to contract like artificial muscle. Each contraction moves the wings and makes them flap. | |
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wild! | |
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By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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but what happens when the robo bees' software gets a virus? something like colony collapse disorder, only crazier. something that makes all the robo bees link up and form a hive mind and ultimately determine that humankind is poisonous to planet earth so they all go on a hunt and kill mission from buzzing, swarming, stinging hell?? (exclamation points) | |
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By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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^ the story practically writes itself eh? we should do the screenplay right here on the org. cborgman could help us, and gunshalen will hook us up with those those sharknado folks. | |
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OK, what I don't understand with any of these tiny drones that I've read about, is how the hell do they power these things? . The biggest tech companies in the world like Apple and Samsung, STRUGGLE to fit batteries in their phones that will power it for even the whole day. The batteries make up literally half the bulk of the phones in many cases! Phones don't even have any moving parts! (well maybe the vibrating unit, but that's not active very often). . So now they're saying they can make a miniscule thing that not only flies, but flaps its wings faster than an actual bee? It's beyond me how this could be possible... . . Are these drones using some kind of alien technology, which is sooo far more advanced than anything that the hundreds of thousands of employees who work for the cutting edge tech companies can come up with for phones? Music, sweet music, I wish I could caress and...kiss, kiss... | |
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nd33 said: OK, what I don't understand with any of these tiny drones that I've read about, is how the hell do they power these things? . The biggest tech companies in the world like Apple and Samsung, STRUGGLE to fit batteries in their phones that will power it for even the whole day. The batteries make up literally half the bulk of the phones in many cases! Phones don't even have any moving parts! (well maybe the vibrating unit, but that's not active very often). . So now they're saying they can make a miniscule thing that not only flies, but flaps its wings faster than an actual bee? It's beyond me how this could be possible... . . Are these drones using some kind of alien technology, which is sooo far more advanced than anything that the hundreds of thousands of employees who work for the cutting edge tech companies can come up with for phones? Well that's the hitch, the power source, a tiny enough one. You'd think that would be the first thing the aliens would give us. That like have a great car for free with an empty gas tank. In the middle of the desert. Pretty much useless. Actually there's ton of interesting stuff ready to go, except no one has come up with a reasonable way to power them. That's scary and exciting at the same time. | |
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Mutant zombie sparrows!! | |
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By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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Syfy channel to the rescue. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised one bit if something like this shows up soon mutant zombie sparrows and all. | |
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By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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