The flight of the humble bee was once so baffling that mathematicians famously concluded it was impossible. But using high-speed cameras and a scale model robot scientists have at last worked out the secret that helps bees stay aloft.
Most flying insects flap their wings using long, sweeping strokes, but honeybees take a less efficient approach. Even though it is a less stable way to fly, honeybees flap their wings more furiously producing just enough force to lift their bodies.
The scientists believe bees developed the unusual style to cope with the varying demands they face during flight. When foraging for nectar, they are at their lightest, but when laden with pollen, or carrying larvae, they can weigh twice as much. By switching from rapid, short wingbeats to longer beats, bees can vary the creature's lifting power considerably.
The scientists unravelled the bees' flying tactics by diverting them into a clear plastic box fitted with three high-speed video cameras which took 3D snapshots of the hovering insects 6,000 times a second. They found that a honeybee typically flaps its 1cm-long wings 240 times a second, each beat covering an arc of only 90o.
Other insects flap at no more than 200 times a second, with each stroke beating over a 165o arc. Instead of producing a steady, powerful upward thrust, the bees' flying style generates peaks of lift at the beginning, middle and end of each beat.
To test the bees, researchers pumped a mixture of helium and oxygen into the box, making the air thin. The bees responded by opening out their stroke to around 140o, and switching their flight behavior to that used by other insects.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS