【Big Brother Sex Scenes】

Japanese scientists are Big Brother Sex Scenescreating bee-sized flying robots in light of our "global pollination crisis." Sound familiar? To Black Mirrorfans it should.

The Japanese research team hopes to take some of the pressure off the existing bee population with its artificial pollinators. The project centers around the use of super sticky ionic liquid gels to do the job, according to the new research report published Thursday in Chem.

As the bee population dwindles, we could face some major ramifications, particularly to global food supply. Honey bees and other pollinators contribute about $15 billion annually to U.S. agricultural crops alone and serve an integral role in maintaining the overall health of the ecosystem.

The research team applied the gels to insect-sized remote control drones rigged with horse hair to mimic a bee's fuzzy body. The bee drones were then set loose on pink-leaved Japanese lilies to determine if they could collect pollen and deposit it from flower to flower, just like a honey bee.

The tests were successful, but the delivery systems will need some work before they're autonomous.

"We believe that robotic pollinators could be trained to learn pollination paths using global positioning systems and artificial intelligence," Miyako told Phys.org.

This isn't the only research being done on semi-sentient robot insects. Other projects, like the one aiming to create cyborg dragonflies, could let other cyber insects roam the skies.

Helping dwindling bee populations is all well and good, but the thought of swarms of autonomous bee drones roving the countryside is a bit too close to the world of sci-fi for comfort.

We can can only hope these robot insects are friendlier than the killer bees in that freaky Black Mirrorfinale.

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