<div>I wholeheartedly agree Peter, well put. Pollination requires particular behaviours, and flower morphologies often reflect this (eg those requiring sonication, sexually deciptive orchids, papillinous flowers) Drones really would only be on par with wind pollinated plants.</div><div>Kit<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Sat, 11 Feb 2017 at 2:20 am, Peter Bernhardt <<a href="mailto:bernhap2@slu.edu">bernhap2@slu.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_msg">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). <div class="gmail_msg"><br class="gmail_msg"></div><div class="gmail_msg">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. </div></div><div class="gmail_msg"><div class="gmail_msg"><br class="gmail_msg"></div><div class="gmail_msg">Peter</div></div><div class="gmail_extra gmail_msg"><br class="gmail_msg"><div class="gmail_quote gmail_msg">On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:03 AM, David Inouye <span class="gmail_msg"><<a href="mailto:inouye@umd.edu" class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">inouye@umd.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br class="gmail_msg"><blockquote class="gmail_quote gmail_msg" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">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.<div class="m_-5707100662895167061HOEnZb gmail_msg"><div class="m_-5707100662895167061h5 gmail_msg"><br class="gmail_msg">
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On 2/10/2017 7:38 AM, Barbara Passero wrote:<br class="gmail_msg">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote gmail_msg" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hi David and others,<br class="gmail_msg">
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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?<br class="gmail_msg">
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Thanks, Barbara<br class="gmail_msg">
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-----Original Message----- From: David Inouye<br class="gmail_msg">
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2017 1:06 PM<br class="gmail_msg">
To: <a href="mailto:pollinator@coevolution.org" class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">pollinator@coevolution.org</a><br class="gmail_msg">
Subject: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators<br class="gmail_msg">
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<a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/this-drone-can-do-the-work-of-honeybees-326f6d1a40c1#.3k4pqg9r1" rel="noreferrer" class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">https://nexusmedianews.com/this-drone-can-do-the-work-of-honeybees-326f6d1a40c1#.3k4pqg9r1</a> <br class="gmail_msg">
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</blockquote>
<br class="gmail_msg">
-- <br class="gmail_msg">
Dr. David W. Inouye<br class="gmail_msg">
Professor Emeritus<br class="gmail_msg">
Department of Biology<br class="gmail_msg">
University of Maryland<br class="gmail_msg">
College Park, MD 20742-4415<br class="gmail_msg">
<a href="mailto:inouye@umd.edu" class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">inouye@umd.edu</a><br class="gmail_msg">
<br class="gmail_msg">
Principal Investigator<br class="gmail_msg">
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory<br class="gmail_msg">
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Crested Butte, CO 81224<br class="gmail_msg">
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