Pollen out the stops to study bees
UMass scientists trying to understand ‘buzz pollination’
LOWELL — A UMass Lowell scientist has developed a microrobot that simulates the way bees pollinate plants.
Noah Jafferis, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, developed the technology to better understand a process known as “buzz pollination” along with University of Sterling associate professor of biological and environmental sciences Mario Vallejo-Marin. The project is being funded by a threeyear, $840,000 grant from the Human Frontier Science Program.
“This is an exciting opportunity to bring together fundamental biological research and micro-robotic technology to delve into the inner workings of buzz pollination in a way that hasn’t been feasible before,” Jafferis said. “These physical experiments, together with computer simulations, will allow us to build a deeper understanding of which aspects of buzz pollination are most important for pollen release.”
Buzz pollination is a highfrequency audio process used by bees to shake pollen from plants and flowers onto their bodies, which they then drop onto other plants and flowers to fertilize them.
The microrobots simulate this process to help researchers understand how bees do it and which bees do it best. The outcome could help improve agriculture and explain the evolution of different types of bees and flowers.
While about 20,000 varieties of plants rely on the process for pollination, the robots are not meant to be a substitute for bees. Bee populations have been declining worldwide, and the researchers hope to use the new understanding of pollination to support the diversity of bee species.
“In Australia and Southern Africa, for example, they need buzz pollinating bees for pollinating some fruit crops. But bumblebees are not native there, so farmers have resorted to using electric toothbrushes to pollinate tomatoes,” VallejoMarin said. “Understanding buzz pollination better could lead to stronger motivation for conserving the diversity of bees, beyond honeybees and bumblebees, as well as potentially optimizing fruit and vegetable yields in agriculture.”