CNN News: 智能養(yǎng)蜂技術(shù)

10 Second Trivia. Which of these insects has the shortest life span? Firefly, Honeybee, Termite or Cicada. Of these options, the worker honeybee has the shortest lifespan at around 40 days.

10秒快速問(wèn)答。以下哪種昆蟲(chóng)壽命最短?螢火蟲(chóng)，蜜蜂，白蟻或蟬。在這些選擇中，工蜂的壽命最短，只有40天左右。

But what an important 40 days that is. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has credited pollinators, including bees, for playing a role in about a third of our food supply. For decades, bee colonies have been decreasing in America though they've been growing elsewhere.

但這40天是多么重要啊。美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部稱(chēng)贊包括蜜蜂在內(nèi)的傳粉者在我們?nèi)种坏氖澄锕?yīng)中發(fā)揮了作用。幾十年來(lái)，盡管其他地方的蜂群一直在增長(zhǎng)，但是美國(guó)的蜂群一直在減少。

From the middle of the last century until now, U.S. bee colonies have declined from about 6 million to less than 3 million. But worldwide colonies have increased from less than 50 million to more than 90 million and those include the one in Ireland we're about to visit which is using modern technology to help an ancient practice.

從上世紀(jì)中葉到現(xiàn)在，美國(guó)蜂群從大約600萬(wàn)減少到不到300萬(wàn)。但是世界范圍內(nèi)的蜂巢地域已經(jīng)從不足5000萬(wàn)增加到超過(guò)9000萬(wàn)，其中包括我們將要參觀的愛(ài)爾蘭殖民地，它使用現(xiàn)代技術(shù)來(lái)幫助古老的做法。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a centuries old tradition and not for the faint hearted.

這是一種傳統(tǒng)的技術(shù)，不太適合膽小的人。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting a little excited now. They don't want anyone to touch their honey.

現(xiàn)在有點(diǎn)興奮了。這些蜜蜂不想讓任何人碰它們的蜂蜜。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regular hive inspections are necessary to see if it's healthy, that the queen is alive allowing the colony to grow. With up to 50.000 bees in each box, examinations can take several hours and can be labor intensive.

定期檢查蜂房是必要的，看它是否健康，看蜂王是否還活著讓蜂群成長(zhǎng)。每個(gè)盒子里有多達(dá)5萬(wàn)只蜜蜂，檢查可能需要幾個(gè)小時(shí)，而且可能是勞動(dòng)密集型的。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're such a magnificent creature. Collectively, these little creatures are so important to the survival of our planet, to economies. I just think that we -- we should be protecting them.

它們是如此壯觀的生物?？偟膩?lái)說(shuō)，這些小生物對(duì)我們這個(gè)星球的生存和經(jīng)濟(jì)都非常重要。我覺(jué)得我們應(yīng)該保護(hù)它們。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See the honeybee is not a mere honey producer. One-third of all the world's food crop production like almonds and avocados depend on pollinators. Pollination from insects, mainly bees, contribute up to $181 billion worth to the agri food industry annually.

蜜蜂不僅僅是產(chǎn)蜜者。世界上三分之一的糧食作物，如杏仁和鱷梨，都依賴(lài)于傳粉者。昆蟲(chóng)授粉，主要是蜜蜂，每年為農(nóng)業(yè)食品工業(yè)貢獻(xiàn)高達(dá)1810億美元的價(jià)值。

But whole colonies are being ravaged by diseases and the use of pesticides and fungicides in farming. Last year in the United States, bee keepers lost 43 percent of their colonies. The good news though is that SmartBee technology could be coming to the rescue. High up in the Wicklow Mountains, about an hour south of Dublin in Ireland, Simon Lynch (ph) has been part of a testing ground for new emerging SmartBee technology over the last two years.

但是整個(gè)蜜蜂殖民地都在遭受疾病和農(nóng)業(yè)中使用殺蟲(chóng)劑和殺菌劑的蹂躪。去年在美國(guó)，養(yǎng)蜂人失去了43%的蜂群。不過(guò)好消息是，SmartBee技術(shù)可能會(huì)來(lái)幫忙。在愛(ài)爾蘭的威克洛山上，距離都柏林以南大約一小時(shí)的車(chē)程，西蒙·林奇在過(guò)去的兩年里一直在使用新興智能蜜蜂技術(shù)。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is our queen.

這是我們的蜂王。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A small Internet connected sensor has been placed under the roof of the hive where it measures temperature, humidity, sound and movement.

一個(gè)小型的聯(lián)網(wǎng)傳感器被放置在蜂房的屋頂下，它可以測(cè)量溫度、濕度、聲音和蜜蜂移動(dòng)。

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're got beehives here in Ireland, in the UK, and South Africa, over in the USA and what we've been doing for the last two years is collecting data from these beehives, building a giant beehive database.

我們?cè)趷?ài)爾蘭，在英國(guó)，在南非，在美國(guó)都有蜂箱，在過(guò)去的兩年里我們一直在做的就是從這些蜂箱中收集數(shù)據(jù)，建立一個(gè)巨大的蜂箱數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)。

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irish start up ApisProtect claims its sensors can help reduce losses and improve the health of honeybees worldwide by alerting beekeepers immediately if there's a problem in the hive. The technology allows beekeepers like Simon (ph) to remotely monitor their hives so that they can more quickly and more easily check whether there's a problem. It's hoped that this technology will allow commercial beekeepers to upscale their business ensuring more pollination and more food for a growing, global population.

愛(ài)爾蘭初創(chuàng)公司ApisProtect聲稱(chēng)，如果蜂箱中出現(xiàn)問(wèn)題，它的傳感器可以立即通知養(yǎng)蜂人，從而幫助減少損失并改善全球蜜蜂的健康。這項(xiàng)技術(shù)允許養(yǎng)蜂人遠(yuǎn)程監(jiān)控蜂箱，這樣他們就能更快更容易地檢查是否有問(wèn)題。人們希望這項(xiàng)技術(shù)能讓商業(yè)養(yǎng)蜂人提升業(yè)務(wù)，確保蜜蜂更多的授粉，并為不斷增長(zhǎng)的全球人口提供更多的食物。

See, pollination is one of the most important, biological processes on our planet. When bees go out to forage, they collect nectar and pollen to bring back to their colony. As it lands on a flower, the bee gets covered in pollen, a dust like substance produced by the flower that contains the male reproductive materials.

授粉是我們地球上上最重要的生物過(guò)程之一。當(dāng)蜜蜂外出覓食時(shí)，它們會(huì)采集花蜜和花粉帶回蜂巢。當(dāng)它落在一朵花上時(shí)，蜜蜂被花粉覆蓋，花粉是一種由花產(chǎn)生的類(lèi)似灰塵的物質(zhì)，含有雄性生殖物質(zhì)。

As the bee moves from flower to flower, the pollen falls off hopefully dusting the female reproductive structure that fertilizes the plant's reproductive organs kick starting the production of seeds and new plants. Beekeeping may be an historic tradition but smart technology hopes to ensure it has a fruitful future.

當(dāng)蜜蜂從一朵花飛到另一朵花時(shí)，花粉會(huì)飄落到雌蜂的生殖結(jié)構(gòu)上，使植物的生殖器官受精，從而開(kāi)始產(chǎn)生種子和新植物。養(yǎng)蜂可能是一個(gè)歷史傳統(tǒng)，但智能技術(shù)希望確保有一個(gè)豐碩的未來(lái)。