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<DIV><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10">Thanks to Barry Thompson for this.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>From: bht1113@aol.com<BR>To: ladadams@aol.com<BR>Sent: 2/24/2013 4:06:54
P.M. Pacific Standard Time<BR>Subj: Fwd: Robot Bees<BR></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"> The March 2013
issue of Scientific American contains an interesting article on robotic
bees ("Flight of the robobees", pp. 60-65 or <A
title=http://scientificamerican.com/mar2013
href="http://scientificamerican.com/mar2013">ScientificAmerican.com/mar2013</A>/robobees.)
It's an article that you will want to read, discomfiting as it may
be.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"> Although the
article ends with the caveats,</FONT></DIV>
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"Although we have made a lot of progress, much work remains. </FONT></DIV>
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We anticipate that within a few years we will have RoboBees flying under
tightly controlled lab conditions. </FONT></DIV>
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Within 5 to 10 years beyond that, you may see them in widespread
use."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>it's clear to me that, with the miniaturization, and more importantly
the ability to have individual robots interact with one another (p.64), the
concept has moved very far along already. Perhaps, we're about to see the
mechanical expression of the neural networking that was envisioned by those
researchers (including Gene Robinson, Jay Evans and Danny Weaver) who
proposed (in successfully seeking funding from the National Human Genome
Research Instritute [NHGRI] for the Bee Genome Project [sequencing of the
honey bee genome] several years ago) that the honey bee colony may
represent a reasonable model for the central nervous system of the
human - and therefore, a means by which to model, and test therapies for,
human mental illness.</DIV>
<DIV> Small consolation, in the face of almost overwhelming
technology, may be sought in the knowledge that, at least for the near
future, robobees won't be making honey (even if they are programmed
ultimately to gather nectar and pollen for environmental assessment. </DIV>
<DIV>Barry Thompson</DIV>
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