The Buzz Behind an App That Can Monitor Beehives Remotely

You've probably heard by now that bees are dying in record numbers. They're being poisoned by pesticides while urbanization encroaches on bees' natural habitats, leaving them with fewer places to live and fewer wildflowers to feed on, says Harvard biologist James Crall, who studies bumblebees. The die-off comes as the world's human population is expected to grow from 7 billion in 2010 to 9.8 billion in 2050; as incomes rise, food producers will need to supply 56 percent more calories to meet growing demand, according to a December report by the World Resource Institute. That's going to be hard to do without the wild bees farmers have traditionally relied on to pollinate their crops. "An enormous amount of our food crops depend on animal pollinators," Crall says, highlighting fruits, nuts, and berries.