Highly sensitive harmonic radar transmitters have been attached to bees in an effort to track them and investigate the reason for their disappearance, National Chung Cheng University Department of Electrical Engineering associate professor Tsai Zuo-min (蔡作敏) said yesterday.
Bee numbers have been declining worldwide for years, causing concern, Tsai said.
The devices can be glued to bees as small as 1.5cm-long and track where they fly and pinpoint their location, helping to determine the reason for the disappearance, he said.
Photo: CNA
The chips are 4mm by 5mm and do not affect bees’ flight, he said.
The chips send a signal on 9.4 gigahertz frequency, which gives an electromagnetic response on the 18.8 gigahertz frequency, enabling the system to locate bees up to 1km away, Tsai said.
This year, Tsai’s team confirmed that pesticides affect the flight path of bees by conducting experiments with the tracking system on the university campus.
“The chip, invented by the team, uses flexible circuits that have an antenna as thin as cicada wings. The bees are able to move in the hive with the chip, which allows us to observe their habitat,” Tsai said.
“By investigating changing weather conditions, we hope to find the reason for the mass disappearance of bees,” he added.
The radar and chip took four years to develop.
Tsai began the project as a researcher and member of a National Taiwan University Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Entomology team.
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