[Pollinator] Pollinator Digest, Vol 1822, Issue 1
Carrie McLaughlin
carrie.mclaughlin58 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 10 17:05:06 PST 2017
I have a friend who is a long-time ento and researcher at a major Texas
university, and when I sent him the story about the dragonfly drones a
couple of weeks ago, he replied as follows, and I think his response still
mostly applies to THIS story (he's probably still laughing, although he'd
certainly agree with Barbara, just as we do):
"Engineers just don't have a clue when it comes to life sciences outside
the lab. These technological feats may actually be possible, but the
amount of time and money spent getting the hardware mounted to the wetware
and making it function would be prohibitive except as a demonstration.
Even then, the chance of a cyborg bug living long enough to do anything
useful is remote. The first robber fly, flycatcher or even another
dragonfly seeing the impaired drone would make a quick meal of it. As for
being useful in bee health or CCD, they may as well have said it would be
useful in the fight against zika. Or ear wax. You can bet the work is
sponsored by DARPA or DoD and their PR flacks came up with that idea. Just
add the right key words and the press will pick up on your story. Geez...
I think we are safe from such science for another couple decades. Thanks
for the laugh [image: 😊]"
Carrie
Carrie McLaughlin
TEXAS POLLINATOR POWWOW, Coordinator
carrie at texaspollinatorpowwow.org
https://www.facebook.com/texaspollinatorpowwow
http://www.texaspollinatorpowwow.org
682-459-1684
Nacogdoches PowWow May 4-7, 2017
https://www.facebook.com/events/167298650345870/
On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 12:19 PM, <pollinator-request at lists.sonic.net>
wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: drones as pollinators (David Inouye)
> 2. Re: drones as pollinators (Barbara Passero)
> 3. The Washington Post: Trump administration puts off listing
> bumble bee as endangered (Kelly Rourke)
> 4. Re: drones as pollinators (Peter Bernhardt)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 08:03:09 -0700
> From: David Inouye <inouye at umd.edu>
> To: Barbara Passero <bpassero at meadowmaking.org>,
> pollinator at coevolution.org
> Subject: Re: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
> Message-ID: <02274378-5856-18ad-4857-ea1c2ee9b7da at umd.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
>
> I hadn't considered a letter to the editor, but encourage you to see
> whether they would accept one. Another colleague pointed out that most
> crop and fruit tree flowers are a lot smaller than the lily flower shown
> in the video, and it's unlikely a drone could pollinate them.
>
>
> On 2/10/2017 7:38 AM, Barbara Passero wrote:
> > Hi David and others,
> >
> > This idea is ridiculous, of course. And dangerous because the average
> > person reading this article would say, "Great. Now I don't have to
> > worry anymore about the fate of bees or eating only corn, wheat, and
> > rice." Do you usually send a stock letter to the editor to correct
> > this misleading information?
> >
> > Thanks, Barbara
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: David Inouye
> > Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2017 1:06 PM
> > To: pollinator at coevolution.org
> > Subject: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
> >
> > https://nexusmedianews.com/this-drone-can-do-the-work-of-
> honeybees-326f6d1a40c1#.3k4pqg9r1
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Dr. David W. Inouye
> Professor Emeritus
> Department of Biology
> University of Maryland
> College Park, MD 20742-4415
> inouye at umd.edu
>
> Principal Investigator
> Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
> PO Box 519
> Crested Butte, CO 81224
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:38:38 -0500
> From: "Barbara Passero" <bpassero at meadowmaking.org>
> To: <pollinator at coevolution.org>, "David Inouye" <inouye at umd.edu>,
> <pollinator-request at lists.sonic.net>
> Subject: Re: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
> Message-ID: <7F3D709C4C9B428DA237E0197696F3CA at BarbaraWin7>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=response
>
> Hi David and others,
>
> This idea is ridiculous, of course. And dangerous because the average
> person
> reading this article would say, "Great. Now I don't have to worry anymore
> about the fate of bees or eating only corn, wheat, and rice." Do you
> usually
> send a stock letter to the editor to correct this misleading information?
>
> Thanks, Barbara
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Inouye
> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2017 1:06 PM
> To: pollinator at coevolution.org
> Subject: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
>
> https://nexusmedianews.com/this-drone-can-do-the-work-of-
> honeybees-326f6d1a40c1#.3k4pqg9r1
>
>
> --
> Dr. David W. Inouye
> Professor Emeritus
> Department of Biology
> University of Maryland
> College Park, MD 20742-4415
> inouye at umd.edu
>
> Principal Investigator
> Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
> PO Box 519
> Crested Butte, CO 81224
>
> _______________________________________________
> Pollinator mailing list
> Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
> https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator
>
>
> ---
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>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:36:26 -0800
> From: Kelly Rourke <kr at pollinator.org>
> To: pollinator at coevolution.org
> Subject: [Pollinator] The Washington Post: Trump administration puts
> off listing bumble bee as endangered
> Message-ID: <6bd180b45d6af1c2d6cc74b0e2a774ae at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> *Trump administration puts off listing bumble bee as endangered*
>
> By Juliet Eilperin February 9 at 10:19 PM
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/
> wp/2017/02/09/trump-administration-puts-off-listing-bumble-bee-as-
> endangered/?utm_term=.98b4db29def2
>
>
>
> Kelly Rourke
>
> Program Coordinator
>
> Pollinator Partnership
>
> 423 Washington Street, 5th Floor
>
> San Francisco, CA 94111
>
> e: *kr at pollinator.org <kr at pollinator.org>*
>
> w: www.pollinator.org
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> p: 415.362.1137
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 12:18:05 -0600
> From: Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu>
> To: David Inouye <inouye at umd.edu>
> Cc: 00?Pollinator 00?Pollinator <pollinator at coevolution.org>
> Subject: Re: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
> Message-ID:
> <CACxVh_yz_oDnGWLV3MSK2pTR=wageiSSDpCZDT2SzRXgssr1qw at mail.
> gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> It might be best to write this letter in the vein of, "well this is cute
> but whacking a flower with a drone isn't enough to effect pollination at
> this moment in technology." Many of our crop plants still require
> cross-pollintation (e.g. most apples and those pretty lilies) so the drone
> must contact individual plants compatible with each other and have both a
> way of retaining viable pollen grains between flights and pin-pointing the
> location of the receptive tip of the pistil. Does the drone "know" when
> the anthers are releasing pollen and can it tell when the stigma (pistil
> tip) is receptive to pollen? What the video also shows is the drone
> bruising the flower. If pistils are injured on impact they become infected
> with bacteria and fungi dying before they set fruit (try a little
> tenderness).
>
> In fact, one of the last robot stories written by Isaac Asimov touched on
> this. He imagined a time in which robot drones replaced dangerous
> insecticides. The bird-shaped drones were programmed only to catch specific
> insects attacking crops, stock and people.
>
> Peter
>
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:03 AM, David Inouye <inouye at umd.edu> wrote:
>
> > I hadn't considered a letter to the editor, but encourage you to see
> > whether they would accept one. Another colleague pointed out that most
> crop
> > and fruit tree flowers are a lot smaller than the lily flower shown in
> the
> > video, and it's unlikely a drone could pollinate them.
> >
> >
> >
> > On 2/10/2017 7:38 AM, Barbara Passero wrote:
> >
> >> Hi David and others,
> >>
> >> This idea is ridiculous, of course. And dangerous because the average
> >> person reading this article would say, "Great. Now I don't have to worry
> >> anymore about the fate of bees or eating only corn, wheat, and rice." Do
> >> you usually send a stock letter to the editor to correct this misleading
> >> information?
> >>
> >> Thanks, Barbara
> >>
> >> -----Original Message----- From: David Inouye
> >> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2017 1:06 PM
> >> To: pollinator at coevolution.org
> >> Subject: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
> >>
> >> https://nexusmedianews.com/this-drone-can-do-the-work-of-hon
> >> eybees-326f6d1a40c1#.3k4pqg9r1
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > --
> > Dr. David W. Inouye
> > Professor Emeritus
> > Department of Biology
> > University of Maryland
> > College Park, MD 20742-4415
> > inouye at umd.edu
> >
> > Principal Investigator
> > Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
> > PO Box 519
> > Crested Butte, CO 81224
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Pollinator mailing list
> > Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
> > https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator
> >
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of Pollinator Digest, Vol 1822, Issue 1
> *******************************************
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