The Flight of the Bumblebee

Apparently, the folks over at Harvard University have decided that bees may indeed know a little something about flight.  According to an article from the BBC, Dr. Sridhar Ravi and his research team are looking at how bees can maintain stable flight even in adverse weather conditions. I’ve always said that bees flight abilities and the way the […]

By |January 13th, 2014|Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on The Flight of the Bumblebee

A bit more about bees …

Just an update— found this on the BBC online site (though if you’re keeping an eye on the ongoing bee crisis, you may have seen this, as it’s from March): Neonicotinoid pesticides ‘damage brains of bees.’   Apparently two research papers were recently published offering substantial evidence that neonicotinoids and coumaphos interfere with bee brain activity, […]

By |September 9th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Flowers and plants, Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on A bit more about bees …

Bees are having a moment

I mentioned bees in my last post, and here we are again.  As part of an occasional series on their rooftop apiary, the San Francisco Chronicle’s August 15 Garden section highlighted a visit from Queen Turner, the head of beekeeping for the Ministry of Agriculture in Botswana.  Meanwhile, the August 19 issue […]

By |August 19th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Flowers and plants, Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on Bees are having a moment

Hot, hot, hot

Hot. Especially here in California, and of course in Hawaii, where I live. Summer often means high air conditioning use and rolling brownouts.

Here’s a bit from the book about using “swarm logic” to manage cooling needs:

Bees are also key subjects of research on swarm logic, whereby the behavior of a large group of individuals— like a collective of bees, ants, slime molds, or even the […]

By |August 12th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on Hot, hot, hot

La Cucaracha

85 American cockroachClearly, the field of robotics is reaping the benefits of bio-inspiration. In some of my Facebook posts, we’ve seen robotic tunnel diggers and a moth in a robot driving a car. (Truly an unexpected use for robots …)

But here’s a video showing Harvard’s Ambulatory […]

By |July 29th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on La Cucaracha

A bit buggy?

This article in the Yakama Herald about new bug’s eye-inspired technology caught my eye (pun very much intended). Ant-eyed endoscopes? Apparently John Rogers, a professor […]

By |May 13th, 2013|Biomimicry in Action, Insects, Shark Bites|Comments Off on A bit buggy?