Since January 2014, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has been using (radio-frequency identification) RFID tags to track bees. These tiny chips monitor the movements of the bees, with a view toward finding out where the insects go, and what role those places may play in colony collapse disorder, the mysterious phenomenon of disappearing bees. Today, US-based tech company Intel and the CSIRO have announced a partnership, using Intel's Edison postage stamp-sized Breakout Board Kit computer, originally designed with wearable technology in mind, to help monitor the bees.
Researchers have strong suspicions about what causes colony collapse, which is a massive problem in food production, since bees are so integral to plant pollination. Proposed causes include pesticides, fungicides and miticides, as well as diseases and parasites, loss of genetic diversity through breeding or genetically modified crops. But it's difficult to pin down what the exact causes are. By tracking where the bees go, researchers hope to gain some insight into what environments the bees are exposed to. To date, more than 15,000 bees in Tasmania, Australia, as well as the Brazilian Amazon in partnership with the Vale Institute of Technology, have been tagged with tiny RFID backpacks.
Link to the video.
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http://www.cnet.com/news/intels-edison-joins-the-quest-to-save-the-bees/
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