Woman With Face 'Completely Covered With Bees' Stung 200 Times
A woman in Lake Forest, California, was hospitalized after she was attacked by a swarm of bees on Monday.
Fascinating Experiment Suggests Bees Understand the Concept of Zero
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…
EU Bans Controversial Pesticide in the Name of Bees
Let’s pop some champagne this weekend: The European Union decided Friday to ban all outdoor use of neonicotinoids, insecticides that have been linked to wild bee population declines and stunted colony growth.
Buzz Buzz, NASA Funds Project to Put Bee Robots on Mars
I can’t beelieve it! Maybe one day there will be bee-like robots buzzing around the surface of Mars.
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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…
Flowers Express 'Invisible' Heat Patterns to Attract Bees
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…
Solar Developers are Transforming Vast Energy Farms Into Pollinator Habitats
The wildflowers tickling the underside of solar panels on a site in Ramsey, Minnesota, are not just for decoration. They represent a new trend in photovoltaics: seeding industrial-sized solar power installations with native, pollinator-friendly plants, instead of using gravel or grass.
You Will Feel Unclean Watching This Video of Bee Sex
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…
Scientists Are Making Horrible Red-Eye Mutant Wasps Because Why the Hell Not
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?
Yet Another Reason Bees Are Screwed: Your Damn Almonds
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…
Human Activity May Cause the Bees to Just Give Up
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.
After Population Plunge, Once Common Bumble Bee Officially Listed as Endangered
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.
This Freaky Plant Has an Incredible Trick For Luring in Flies
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.
Queen Bees Lay Fewer Eggs When Exposed to Popular Insecticide
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…
South Carolina Just Annihilated Millions of Bees By Accident
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.
F-22 Raptor Gets Owned By a Bunch of Honey Bees
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!
Here's a New Reason Bees Are Dying At an Alarming Rate
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.”
Swarm of Bees Attempts to Consume Pickup Truck
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.
Reporter Rushes to Scene of Bee Truck Crash, Gets Trapped by Bees
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.
Harvard's Robotic Bee Is Scary Lifelike (With a Few Important Exceptions)
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.
