Page 29 - Cosmos Edition 3
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The bee drone prototype
The Plan Bee prototype is a hand-sized yellow-and-black device that looks nothing like a bee. She want-
ed to give it the essence of a bee without exactly replicating the insect, she said. Haldewang worked
through 50 design variations before settling on the final version. The device is made with a foam core
(to keep it lightweight), plastic-shell body and a pair of propellers to keep it airborne. Each of the
drone's six sections has tiny holes underneath through which the device sucks in pollen from a flower
when it hovers over it. The pollen is stored in the body cavity before it's later expelled for cross-
pollination.
Plan Bee at work
"When you flip it upside down, it looks like a flower," she said, adding it was her way to honor a flower's
role in pollination.
Bees are amongst the most important creatures to humans on Earth. These amazing insects pollinate over
80% of all flowering plants including 70 of the top 100 human food crops. One in three bites of food that
we eat is derived from plants pollinated by bees. So, it’s a call for us, humans, to be mindful of our actions
and contribute towards conservation of these tiny yet mighty creatures.
- Lael Alva.
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