Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in pollen. In controlled trials, colonies fed this specially designed diet produced up to 15 times more young, showing a dramatic boost in reproduction and overall health. As climate change and modern agriculture reduce the availability of natural pollen, this innovation could offer a practical way to support struggling bee populations.

Using CRISPR-Cas9, scientists engineered a yeast to produce the nutrient feed. Farmers could have it in two years.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    391·
    10 hours ago

    Get rid of the large swaths of green fucking grass, which completely useless when one cuts it down. Let the Dandy Lions grow like we do in Europe and plant more native flowers too.

    • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 hours ago

      Let the Dandy Lions grow like we do in Europe

      No, Dandy Lions crowd out native North American species and result in less diverse ecosystems, which is bad.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 hours ago

      I have a native meadow lawn and it’s awesome. Zero maintenance, barely any watering (just peak dry season) and incredibly beautiful. The ecosystem takes care of itself as long as you don’t buff one side by accident.

    • phx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      10 hours ago

      Clover. Clover is great:

      • Lush and green
      • Holds down soil we
      • Soft to walk on
      • Needs less water than grass
      • Needs less mowing
      • Bees love it
      • slaughterhouse@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        +1 for clover. I “accidentally” spilled some clover seed outside our place (bugger off HOA), and it’s slowly overtaking the grass they planted.

      • SpermHowitzer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        I spread a bunch of clover seed around my yard, and where the grass was struggling (I don’t water or fertilize at all) the clover took over, and where the grass was doing ok naturally the clover sort of let the grass have that space mostly. Now the whole yard looks nice, and the clover is just fucking loaded with bees all day. It’s great. My dog just lies in the lush clover and watches the bees buzz around.

      • dai@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        My yard was infested with bur clover, horrible stuff when you have pets. Worse when your pets are poodle mixes.

        Other clover yeah they chill.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        6 hours ago

        It’s also way less ugly than dandelions that have finished blooming and started spreading seeds, as a bonus. In fact, it looks pleasing to the eye.

        IIRC it also grows really easily, you can guerilla plant clover seeds around town at night if you really want to.

      • atcorebcor@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        He wrote it wrong. Its dandelion, and its pronounced in English just like you do, but dependent on the country, we have different words for it. In danish its “mælkebøtte”. Which means “milk bucket”. I think because of the white liquid they have inside. Its good for mosquito bites.