Bees’ supreme obstacle avoidance to make for smarter drones

http://www.gizmag.com/bee-obstacle-avoidance-drones/42675/

Dense forests crowded with branches and leaves provide quite the obstacle course for fast-moving insects. How they are able to identify gaps to move through seems to defy their small brains and low resolution eyesight. Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University have now uncovered the tricks the animals use to navigate these tight spaces without running into trouble.

Bees’ supreme obstacle avoidance to make for smarter drones

http://www.gizmag.com/bee-obstacle-avoidance-drones/42675/

Dense forests crowded with branches and leaves provide quite the obstacle course for fast-moving insects. How they are able to identify gaps to move through seems to defy their small brains and low resolution eyesight. Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University have now uncovered the tricks the animals use to navigate these tight spaces without running into trouble.

Exposure to even low levels of herbicides hinders bees’ ability to forage from common wild flowers – NaturalNews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/053562_bee_colonies_population_decline_herbicides.html#

“Our results suggest that current levels of pesticide exposure could be significantly affecting how bees are interacting with wild plants, and impairing the crucial pollination services they provide that support healthy ecosystem function,” he said.

In other words, if herbicides hinder bumblebees’ ability to learn and adapt, then wild bees could become increasingly sensitive to changes in the environment. According to a separate review, an estimated 57 different herbicides are poisoning European honey bees, which is contributing to the rapidly declining bee population worldwide.

Exposure to even low levels of herbicides hinders bees’ ability to forage from common wild flowers – NaturalNews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/053562_bee_colonies_population_decline_herbicides.html#

“Our results suggest that current levels of pesticide exposure could be significantly affecting how bees are interacting with wild plants, and impairing the crucial pollination services they provide that support healthy ecosystem function,” he said.

In other words, if herbicides hinder bumblebees’ ability to learn and adapt, then wild bees could become increasingly sensitive to changes in the environment. According to a separate review, an estimated 57 different herbicides are poisoning European honey bees, which is contributing to the rapidly declining bee population worldwide.

Study suggests commercial bumble bee industry amplified a fungal pathogen of bees | EurekAlert! Science News

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uoia-ssc033016.php

Their study, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that N. bombi was present in the U.S. as early as 1980, well before several species of wild bumble bees started to go missing across the country. The study also found that N. bombi infections in large-scale commercial bumble bee pollination operations coincided with infections and declines in wild bumble bees

Scientists make new discovery about how bees feed, giving rise to new concerns about pesticides (From Herald Scotland)

Penelope Whitehorn, co-author of the study said: “Because neonicotinoids are neurotoxins and bees’ feeding is very complex, involving lots of different neurological mechanisms, I think it will undoubtedly be affected in some way by exposure to these pesticides.”

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