This long-forgotten gel could help robots pollinate all our crops

The result is a large robotic pollinator described in the journal Chem. In addition to putting together the remote-controlled pollinating drone, Miyako and colleagues also tested the gel on ants, and found that ants with a small coating of the gel attracted more pollen than ants without. Miyako's experiment was inspired by the plight of pollinators like bees around the globe, many of which are currently imperiled by a wide variety of factors. Dave Goulson, a biologist who specializes in the study of bumblebees, says that a combination of factors are leading to the declining health of bee populations worldwide. "The poor bees are short of food, poisoned by pesticides and infected with foreign diseases. There are a few other minor things as well, but you stick all that together and it's hardly surprising that they're not doing so great," Goulson says.