The objective of the ideal bee project was to change the bee on some way, realistic or unrealistic, that makes the bee better. This can be in survival, gathering pollen, or everyday life. My group, which consisted of Tziporah Serota and Sarah Cunningham, wanted to focus on how we could solve the pesticide problem with bees. Pesticides are big problem with bees as when they ingest the pesticide on flowers, they become disoriented and can't function properly. This causes many of these bees to die. Our group thought that if there was a way for the bees to separate the pesticide from the body, the effects of the pesticide could be eliminated. Our group decided on adding a pesticide sac that when the pesticide is separated, it can be stored in a protective sac that doesn't affect the bee. We went a step forward while also attacking another problem, the stinger. On the current bee, when a bee stings an animal with tough skin, like a mammal, the stinger is ripped from its body, which is a fatal wound. Our group's ideal bee decided to attach the stinger to this pesticide sac. This attachment now allows the bee the weaponize the pesticide as the bee can now inject the pesticide into its victim by way of the stinger. The last thing our group changed was we strengthened the veins in the wings to make them less susceptible to the mites which can carry Deformed Wing Virus. These strengthened wings can hold up better to this virus.
Our group was able to split up the project into different parts. Sarah worked on the shell of the bee that was 3D printed, as she has past experience with 3D modeling. I was in charge of making the pesticide sac for the bee. Our group decided to use a wooden ball to resemble this as wood is porous and like the sac would soak up the pesticide in the body. Tziporah used her biology background to make a postor that showed how these changes could be realistically changed in the bee by manipulating the honey bee genome. Overall the project was a learning experience for me as I was able to learn about the biology of the bee along with how bees can be changed for the better. |