Humans have relegated insects to the lower levels of the cognitive totem pole, but scientists are increasingly showing it’s a mistake to underestimate invertebrate intelligence. As a case in point, new research by French and Australian researchers suggests honey bees understand the concept of zero—a rare and complex…
I can’t beelieve it! Maybe one day there will be bee-like robots buzzing around the surface of Mars.
Editor’s note: Gizmodo is a website about a lot of things—technology, science fiction, fish-inspired marital aids—but, at our core, we’ve always been a catalog of small ideas. Over the last 15 years, we’ve done our best to champion the voice of the little guy, the one that says “maybe blindly submitting to mass…
Over the course of evolution, flowers and pollinating insects have developed an intimate, mutually beneficial relationship. To get the attention of pollinators, flowers have developed an assortment of cues, such as colorful petals and aromatic smells. But as a new study points out, many plants also express complex…
For those who came here expecting the uncut version of Bee Movie, you’re in the wrong place. This is a blog about some very unnerving bee-on-bee action—not some culmination of sexual tension between Renee Zellweger and Jerry Seinfeld’s characters in the 2007 cult movie. Apparently, long-horned bees copulating is…
Listen, scientists. I appreciate what you do, and boy I sure do love that evidence-based pursuit of knowledge, but did you have to make mutant wasps? Did you?
It’s no secret that bees have been having a really rough time: Just yesterday, the rusty-patched bumble became the first bee in the continental United States officially listed under the Endangered Species Act. But that’s the tip of the iceberg for our buzzy little friends, who unlike their asshole cousins—wasps—only…
The bees are one of our most important ecological allies, thanks to their role ensuring our food plants reproduce. But it’s starting to seem like our favorite fuzzy buzzers are getting sick of our shit.
The noble and rare rusty-patched bumble bee is officially endangered. A once common bee that inhabited 28 states, the rusty-patched bumble has become the first bee from the continental United States to be added to the endangered species list.
Plants employ a wide variety of tactics to lure pollinators, but an ornamental plant popularly known as Giant Ceropegia takes it to another level. Its flower smells like a honeybee under attack—an odor that freeloading, meal-seeking flies find absolutely irresistible.
New research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows that a widely-used class of nicotine-based insecticides is causing queen bees to lay substantially fewer eggs than normal. This particular class of insecticides—the most popular in the world—has also been linked to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious…
To prevent Zika-infected mosquitoes from taking root in South Carolina, officials in Dorchester County gave the go-ahead to spray a powerful insecticide over the countryside. The effort resulted in the unexpected deaths of millions of bees at a time when these critical pollinators are struggling worldwide.
The F-22 Raptor is one of the military’s most powerful weapons, but everything—man, woman, sentient rotted orange—has a weakness. For the fighter jet, that weakness is BEEEEEEEEEES!
At the beginning of Bee Movie, Jerry Seinfeld explains in a voiceover, “According to all known laws of aviation,” bees should not be able to fly. But the bee flies anyway “because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.”
When bees swarm, a natural process when looking for a place to set up a new colony, they have the tendency to pick some strange locations as a temporary home. Case in point, this truck just chilling near a hotel in downtown Winnipeg.
A truck collided with two other vehicles on a busy North Carolina highway today, upending a swarm of bees onto the road, and trapping at least one news photographer in his car. And every single tweet that local news station WBTV posted about this situation is a gem.
Researchers at Harvard and MIT have spent the last seven years perfecting this robotic bee. The result is Robobee, a mechanical bee so lifelike it kind of makes you want to duck indoors.
Bees are dying at an incredible rate, and we’re all screwed because of it. But instead of thinking about all that doom and gloom, why not take a look at these photos of a massive swarm stuck to some poor woman’s car and thank your lucky stars it wasn’t yours.
Across the world, bees are succumbing to a deadly virus, and a new study places the blame squarely on humans. The good news is, there are some common-sense measures we can take right now to start protecting the honeybees we rely on to pollinate our crops.
As part of their research into bees, the United States Geological Survey has compiled a drop-dead gorgeous gallery of bees. From flufftastic fuzzballs to sleek torpedoes, the variety of bees is awe-inspiring.
