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A Materially Engineered Artificial Pollinator

posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 10 2017, @09:53PM   
from the just-use-a-qtip dept.

takyon writes:

Scientists have created a tiny drone capable of pollinating plants:

The device is about the size of a hummingbird, and has four spinning blades to keep it soaring. With enough practice, the scientists were able to maneuver the remote-controlled bot so that only the bristles, and not the bulky body or blades, brushed gently against a flower's stamen to collect pollen [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2017.01.008] [DX]—in this case, a wild lily (Lilium japonicum), they report today in Chem. To ensure the hairs collect pollen efficiently, the researchers covered them with ionic liquid gel (ILG), a sticky substance with a long-lasting "lift-and-stick-again" adhesive quality—perfect for taking pollen from one flower to the next.

The current version is not autonomous and must be piloted by a human.

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Original Submission

• Nice work if you can get it Nice work if you can get it (Score: 3, Insightful) by Uncle_Al on Friday February 10 2017, @10:02PM

  by Uncle_Al (1108) on Friday February 10 2017, @10:02PM (#465603)

  Someone got PAID for doing this?

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• Re:Nice work if you can get it Re:Nice work if you can get it (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 11 2017, @12:16AM

  by c0lo (156) on Saturday February 11 2017, @12:16AM (#465636) Journal

  What do you think the Predator/Reaper drones' remote pilots will be doing once discharged?

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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  • Re:Nice work if you can get it Re:Nice work if you can get it (Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 11 2017, @03:49AM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday February 11 2017, @03:49AM (#465678) Homepage

    Going to work for Lockheed Martin and General Atomics making 5 times what they did in the military, and with better benefits.

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    • Re:Nice work if you can get it (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 11 2017, @06:27AM

      by c0lo (156) on Saturday February 11 2017, @06:27AM (#465697) Journal

      Going to work for Lockheed Martin and General Atomics making 5 times what they did in the military

      Say... what? Did Lockheed Martin and General Atomics diversified in the business of RC quadricopter mediated pollination? (grin)

      Seriously speaking now, some may do so. But unless LM or GA decide to open the DASA (drone-as-a-service) business, I don't know what the two businesses will do with thousands of retired drone operators (say a couple of hundreds per generation, 5-8 generations to retirement sounds plausible)

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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• Re:Nice work if you can get it (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 11 2017, @02:41AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 11 2017, @02:41AM (#465664)

  I know, huh. I rub stamens and stigmas just because it feels good.

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• Re:Nice work if you can get it (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday February 11 2017, @06:07PM

  by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Saturday February 11 2017, @06:07PM (#465838) Homepage Journal

  That's only one of the problems I saw in a paper I got to from Google News: it's damned expensive. There were other reasons, such as the drones suck at pollinating and often harm the plants they're pollinating. As this guy [sussex.ac.uk] from the University of Sussex notes, bees only do 1/3 of pollination. He also states that natural pollination is free, but often it isn't. Farmers pay beekeepers to bring their hives to their farms.

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  mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org

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