No! It's really not like that!

NetworkWorld reports on SEAS’s recent $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a colony of RoboBees, which are exactly what they sound like – robotic bees that fly autonomously and can model real-life colony behavior. Why all the buzz? Harvard’s official RoboBees website explains:

The collaborators envision that the Nature-inspired research could lead to a greater understanding of how to artificially mimic the collective behavior and “intelligence” of a bee colony; foster novel methods for designing and building an electronic surrogate nervous system able to deftly sense and adapt to changing environments; and advance work on the construction of small-scale flying mechanical devices.

While we probably don’t have to worry about swarms of RoboBees descending on the Yard anytime soon, researchers do anticipate that they may be used for artificial pollination, environmental and traffic monitoring, and search and rescue missions.

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