From Dancing Bees to RoboBees: How Honeybees Behave and Why We Need Them October 16, 2013 Introduction Honeybees are creating a buzz in the media lately, particularly due to the large numbers of mysterious bee deaths attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder. This lecture will explore how these amazing creatures play an important role in our economy and inspire the future of robotics, as well as what we know about the threats to bee health. First, Elizabeth will discuss how bee biology and behavior allows many individual bees to function together as a colony. She will also use her personal experience to explain how beekeepers establish and maintain successful beehives. Next, Ryan will evaluate potential causes of Colony Collapse Disorder and other causes of bee deaths in the United States. Finally, Kevin will talk about his work on current efforts to engineer RoboBees, a potential technological answer to “the end of bees.” Following the talk, interested participants can enjoy an up-close look at beekeeping equipment and a chance to chat with a beekeeper. Speakers Elizabeth Petrik is a 6th year doctoral student in the Department of Physics. She works on an experiment searching for a tiny charge asymmetry in the electron, the existence of which would challenge our most fundamental theories of nature. She reads about honeybees avocationally, having briefly kept them as a teenager in Indiana farm country. Elizabeth’s other interests include philosophy of science, mystery stories, word games, and baking pie. Ryan Kuzmickas is a 5th year graduate student in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program. He works on novel therapeutic strategies to target prostate cancer in the lab of Karen Cichowski. When not in the lab he does a passable impersonation of a father and husband. Kevin Ma is a 4th-year graduate student researcher at the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He works with Prof. Robert Wood on the Robobees project to develop a flying swarm of robotic insects for robotic pollination and search- and-rescue applications. As mechanical designer, his contributions led to the first successful demonstration of stable, controlled flight of an insect-scale robot. In his spare time, Kevin indulges in the art and design of technology, Japanese tea ceremony, and improv comedy. Glossary of Important Terms Royal jelly: worker bee secretion fed to bee larvae; in large quantities it triggers a female larva to become fertile and develop into a queen Propolis: "bee glue;" resinous substances (such as pine sap) collected by worker bees to patch structural defects in the hive and entomb the carcasses of large hive invaders such as lizards and mice to prevent rot Waggle dance: forager bees perform a pattern of steps while waggling their abdomens and releasing chemical signals to indicate the direction, proximity, and size of a food source to their sister bees. Honey super: an extra box of honeycomb frames that a beekeeper places on top of a beehive for human harvesting. The queen is usually excluded by a coarse mesh so that she cannot lay eggs in the honey super. Worker policing: the habit of worker bees of destroying drone (male) eggs laid by their fertile sisters to prevent genetic competition with the queen. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD): A syndrome characterized by the disappearance of adult honey bees from their hives Varroa destructor: A parasitic mite that feeds on honey bees and is the greatest single cause of honey bee loss in the US Neonicotinoids: A class of pesticide named for their similarity to nicotine. They work by poisoning the nervous system of insects Piezoelectric ceramic: A hard, ceramic material that contracts when electrical voltage is applied to it. This is used in the RoboBee as flight muscles to power its flapping wings. Roll, pitch, and yaw: The three axes of rotation that define the orientation of an aircraft. It is important to be able to control an aircraft's orientation about these three axes in order to fly it properly. Carbon fiber: The rigid material used to construct most of the RoboBee body. Carbon fiber is a composite material that consists of many tiny high-strength, low weight fibers of carbon material woven and glued together with resin. Resources to learn more NOVA| “Tales from the Hive” Series, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/, this PBS documentary series explores the inside of a honeybee hive and gives a bug’s eye view of bee behavior Follow the News– Science in the News Upcoming SITN Events Oct 21st, Science by the Pint- Robert C. Green: Your Genome and Your Medical Future Oct. 23rd, Talking Back to the Brain: How neuroscientists use light to uncover the language of neurons Want to watch this seminar again and check out other SITN seminars? Check out our YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/SITNBoston, Vimeo http://vimeo.com/sitn, and website http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/category/seminars/ Go to the SITN homepage http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu for more information about our organization and upcoming events. facebook.com/SITNBoston [email protected] .