Chances are you’ve all heard about the honey bee decline around the world. A micro-sensing technologies science leader for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) named Paulo de Souza told Mashable that the decline could be caused by a number of things, including weather, parasites, pesticide use and habitat deprivation.
To help combat those issues and get a better idea of how to keep honeybees healthy, the Global Initiative for Honey bee Health (GIHH) was started. GIHH is a CSIRO-led project in which bees are outfitted with special “backpacks.” These backpacks are sensors that are super-glued onto the backs of honeybees in Australia, Mashable reports. Once the sensors are attached, they should remain on the bees for the remainder of their lives. The data from the bees’ sensors is then transmitted to scientists. But the data collection doesn’t stop at little bee backpacks. Beehives will also have Intel Edison boards. This technology from the solar-powered boards will also record data and send it back to scientists, according to Mashable.
GIHH hopes to expand the project worldwide, with the boards in 1,000 hives and roughly 2.5 million micro-sensors attached to honeybees.
“We hope to leave a legacy for the bees and for scientists,” de Souza told Mashable. “We are developing the future of food for the world… we have to do something before it becomes too late.”
Do you think it will work?
