Autonomous drones to pollinate flowers

in science •  4 years ago 


Source

Pollination is the process of transferring pollen from the stamens to the stigma or receptive part of the flowers, fertilizing the flower's eggs to make possible the production of seeds and fruits.

Normally the transport of this pollen is usually done by means of the so-called pollination vectors, which can be air or wind, or also some species of insects and even some birds.

But because of our mania to pollute everything and end all natural habitats, we make it really difficult for some of these pollination vectors , as is the case, for example, with bees.


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Many plants are totally dependent on bees to reproduce and lately we have seen news of how some of these species are disappearing entirely.

Manual pollination is very hard work so some automatic pollination method is needed, which supplants the work of insects in the event that they drastically decreased or disappear.

That is why a group of researchers have created small "bee" drones that could act as pollination vectors by distributing a kind of pollen-filled bubbles among the flowers.


Source

The drones would carry pistols loaded with a solution similar to soap, which would spray pollen-laden bubbles on the flowers, which when colliding with the flower would burst leaving the pollen on the flower.

The truth is that it is a simple and ingenious solution to end a problem of this magnitude that can have devastating consequences for all humanity.

More information:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/drone-delivered-soap-bubbles-could-help-pollinate-flowers


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