Scientists Discover Solar Powered Hornets 177
adeelarshad82 writes "The oriental hornet is more active during the day, and tends to become even more active as the temperature rises. And now scientists have discovered the reason: the hornets are solar powered. It turns out that the distinctive yellow stripe on the hornet's abdomen is actually full of tiny protrusions that gather sunlight and harness it for energy. The insect also features a special pigment, called xanthopterin, that helps with the process."
Oh no.... (Score:4, Funny)
I for one welcome our solar powered insect overlords?
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They get their powers from our yellow sun?
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Does that mean they have a super sense of humor?
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Re:Oh no.... (Score:4, Funny)
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How long before some inventor dude accidentally crosses their dna with his own and ends up a solar powered terror?
Chrysler? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Now in the electric car business, too!?!
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Heh! I a'int thinkin' that far back!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Hornet [wikipedia.org]
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Those modding this person offtopic are obviously still in high school or middle school.
Quit focusing on one subject and broaden your horizons, please. Maybe you'd catch the reference, then.
Pardon me while I go drive my Mercer.
Solar powered eh... (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, couldn't resist...
Re:Solar powered eh... (Score:5, Funny)
Ouch, that one stung.
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Shocking!
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Ouch, that one stung
--
Be relentless!.
hehehe...
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A: Superlemon.
Re:Solar powered eh... (Score:5, Funny)
"Green" does seem to be a buzzword these days.
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Re:Solar powered eh... (Score:4, Funny)
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that stung.
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You're either talking European [wikipedia.org] Hornets [pestworld.org] or Cicada killers [wikipedia.org]. European hornets have the odd characteristic of banging against windows at night, trying to get at the light inside. We call them "Buck Hornets" in Central Virginia. Contrary to popular belief, their sting isn't too different from a normal wasp.
Cicada killers [wikipedia.org] are also very large, but are very unlikely to sting you (females can but are reluctant to do so, males are incapable).
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What does the wasp do with it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Since xanthopterin converts light directly into electricity, according to the research, what exactly does the wasp do with the electricity produced? Does it directly excite muscles? Is there a tiny capacitor in the abdomen that dumps the energy into pulling the wings down?
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I scanned the document but it seems to end at the point where the energy is collected. The don't seem to suggest how it could be used.
Re:What does the wasp do with it? (Score:5, Informative)
Since xanthopterin converts light directly into electricity, according to the research, what exactly does the wasp do with the electricity produced? Does it directly excite muscles? Is there a tiny capacitor in the abdomen that dumps the energy into pulling the wings down?
Presumably it would use the electrons generated in a redox [wikipedia.org] reaction which generate ATP [wikipedia.org] which is the basic power supply of the cell.
Of course, this is all very hypothetical and hand waving at this point. However, if real, it could be a Big Deal - now you have another molecule, aside from the chlorophyll complex that can take photons and use them in cellular reactions. Photosynthesis is quite a bit more efficient that photovoltaic cells - assuming that this really does produce electrons at the end of the reaction and it's similarly efficient, or even just easier to copy / clone / manipulate, we might yet have a decent solar to electricity system.
One of these days.
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Cloning the power cells would be interesting, and was the first thing I thought of when I saw it, too. I'm sure they could find the genes to splice to produce the xanthopterin in another organism, such as a conveniently non-flying and non-stinging pine tree. But without the insect's sophisticated chitin structure to collect the energy I suspect much of it would be wasted; and that's only if there's enough light energy to start the reaction at all.
But the thought of hooking electrodes up to a Frankentree a
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Self powered live Christmas trees? When Christmas is over, plant it by your driveway!
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Pine needles already sting if you touch them the wrong way so the difference won't be that great.
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Bang, zoom, straight to the Moon!
Re:What does the wasp do with it? (Score:5, Informative)
Uh no. Photosynthesis efficiency varies from 0.1% to 8%. Solar panels go from 6% to 41%. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis#Efficiency .
Re:What does the wasp do with it? (Score:4, Informative)
"Photosynthesis efficiency varies from 0.1% to 8%."
Only in sunlight driven systems, just FYI, following the stated source. In targeted wavelength systems, this is absolutely nowhere near the case.
In LED driven systems, photosynthetic efficiency jumps double to nearly quadruple that, tested over and over again in multiple of my systems. We can push it as far as nearly 50% efficiency before we hit maximum saturation if we pulse the light instead of a solid steady output.
See, what mainly limits efficiency is the rate at which chlorophyll degrades and regenerates. When it processes energy, it rips itself apart and gets rebuilt. This is how light bleaching happens, too much light, too much photosynthesis, the plant can't regenerate chlorophyll as fast as it's producing energy, and it 'burns' out.
Stop relying upon wikipedia. It's so outdated as of now for my field of research that they might as well delete the entire section from their site.
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Re:What does the wasp do with it? It's a bug! (Score:2)
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Speculation is Sensational (Score:2)
Since xanthopterin converts light directly into electricity, according to the research, what exactly does the wasp do with the electricity produced?
The article speculates that it gives them digging energy. I'm going to be more conservative here, and postulate that it only gives them an innate sense of direction and sun intensity. All bees/wasps need to be good navigators, and since these guys dig, they'll be better off digging when the ground is somewhat dry so they don't get buried in mud tunnel collapse
Re:What does the wasp do with it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Brings to mind the Platypus which uses electricity to locate prey. Maybe hornets use electric potentials as a sensory input.
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You know, every time someone says anything about a platypus, I find myself thinking "WTF?".
Egg laying mammal, with a bill, fur, a tail like a beaver, poisonous venom in a foot spike ... and now electrolocation [wikipedia.org].
I swear, it really is the most bizarre of critters I can imagine. If there is a god, and he did create everything ... the platypus was created immediately after a heavy dose of mescaline or something! It's like a collection of spare p
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Or that nature is incredibly complex.
The platypus doesn't show us anything about "God".
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The platypus doesn't show us anything about "God".
This isn't a faith vs. science/anything else discussion. Learn to read the mood.
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Only if you tickle them.
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Every example we have creates electricity, and it is probably a requirement, since the light interferes only with electrons... Maybe there is an organism that does it purely by chemical reactions, but every one I'm aware of turns the light into electricity (on a stable molecule), conduct it to some other place (a molecule that changes form) and use that later place to make some endotermic reaction happen.
journal article (Score:5, Informative)
It's unfortunately paywalled, but in case anyone has access to a library with a subscription, the journal article this news article is about is:
Plotkin et al. (2010). Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) [springerlink.com]. Naturwissenschaften 97(12): 1067-1076.
Re:journal article (Score:5, Informative)
It's unfortunately paywalled, but in case anyone has access to a library with a subscription, the journal article this news article is about is:
Plotkin et al. (2010). Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis). Naturwissenschaften 97(12): 1067-1076.
The full text [springerlink.com] works for me and I'm not in a library or anywhere else with a journal subscription.
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works for me too, I figured it was because I was on campus though...
From the 'Results' Section:
"Previous studies have shown diffusion potential across the
cuticle, with the inside negative with respect to the outside.
Digby (1965) has suggested that electrons move through the
semiconductive cuticular layer. This process creates calcium
carbonate that precipitates in the cuticle. In conclusion, we
have presented evidence supporting the hypothesis that the
Oriental hornet has evolved a cuticle design to harvest sol
Re:journal article (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, interesting, sorry for the mis-labeling then. It worked for me, but I'm on a campus that subscribes to Springer journals, which are usually paywalled, so I assumed it was paywalled.
It looks like Naturwissenschaften is part of a "Springer OpenChoice" program where authors can choose to make their paper open-access by paying Springer $3,000, which these authors must've done I guess? I rarely see anyone pay those fees in my field (computer science), but I've heard that in biology grants are more willing to pay such fees.
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The scientific literature world is pretty strange. Usually you pay around 90$ per page to get your article published in a paid journal. The journal doesn't have to do much for that. The reviewers work for free so they only have to send some letters around and do the typesetting. To have the article 'in the open' you pay a staggering 3000$ for which they do nothing! Amazing
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The scientific literature world is pretty strange. Usually you pay around 90$ per page to get your article published in a paid journal. The journal doesn't have to do much for that. The reviewers work for free so they only have to send some letters around and do the typesetting. To have the article 'in the open' you pay a staggering 3000$ for which they do nothing! Amazing
That's pretty short-sighted. I've helped building a system for a well-known publisher which "sends some letters around" as you so succinctly describe. We've worked for it for two years, with a 10+ people team at the project peak.
But perhaps you can do the job for free.
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They don't have to do it for free, considering the outrageous fees they collect for subscriptions to their journals. The way I see it, having a popular scientific journal is just raking in money. But maybe someone can convince me that that is not the case.
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...for all of the buzz that this is generating.
I see what you did there
Not a unique ability (Score:5, Interesting)
The Oriental hornet has a unique ability to harvest solar energy, scientists have discovered.
Not true. Many marine organisms use Zooanthella [wikipedia.org] to harvest solar energy. This is why a number of corals and anemone are very difficult to keep in marine aquariums - the spectrum and power of artificial light has to be "just right" otherwise the organisms eject their zooantehlla cells and as a result starve to death over the following weeks or months.
Re:Not a unique ability (Score:5, Interesting)
Not true. Many marine organisms use Zooanthella to harvest solar energy. This is why a number of corals and anemone are very difficult to keep in marine aquariums - the spectrum and power of artificial light has to be "just right" otherwise the organisms eject their zooantehlla cells and as a result starve to death over the following weeks or months.
It's worth noting here that this is a symbiotic relationship between two species. It appears that the hornets may have a novel mechanism that isn't the result of symbiosis.
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There was also a report on a sea snail which had chlorophyll incorporated in its body, giving it a green color and energy source:
http://www.google.hu/m/search?site=images&source=mog&hl=hu&gl=hu&client=safari&q=sea%20snail%20clorophyll#i=3 [google.hu]
This will usher in a new era of solar power... (Score:2)
How will this influence solar power research? (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the things that is most interesting is the nano-structures that are used to make light gathering more efficient. Understanding these structures could improve the efficiency of existing solar power collectors. With current genetic techniques it might even be possible to grow these structures, and perhaps even used grown material in real world applications.
Another point is that the wasp's collection structures are yellow, not green like plant chlorophyll. The green color results from chlorophyll not using green light, but absorbing more blue end light. If the wasps look yellow, that might mean that they are efficient in a different part of the visible light spectrum.
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I don't see the point of making a yellow panels because we found yellow hornets.
Combine technology that absorbs everything but green with technology that absorbs everything but yellow, perhaps?
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They weren't chosen. They turned out to work. Evolution is a random process, remember?
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I'm sorry, you're right. I tend to think of the evolutionary process as a series of choices between random (but somehow predetermined) events that are likely to occur.
It's all science, and science is kind of logical sometimes.
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I have absolutly no amount of expertise in this, but I would guess that the yellow pigments are chosen because yellow is a color of warning. Maybe it also suffers from less photodegradation as well? A combination of the two possibly makes yellow the ideal choice. I dunno, but either way I'm guess it has something to do with how yellow pigments react to light.
From our perspective, we (humans) chose yellow as a color of warning because there were lots of nasty critters with yellow/red on them that killed us. Well, technically, that killed other people while we (as a species) watched, since the dead make very few social color recommendations.
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I have absolutly no amount of expertise in this, but I would guess that the yellow pigments are chosen because yellow is a color of warning.
That is quite plausible. The pigment may have been just a pigment at one time and ended up dual purposed through evolution.
Re:How will this influence solar power research? (Score:5, Informative)
New materials? The full text [springerlink.com] version of the article (posted by someone above), mentions a measured the conversion efficiency of a xanthopterin-sensitized TiO2 solar cell to 0.335% - clearly some more work needs to be done (e.g. other substate to senzitize?).
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No they just don't absorb all that much energy. The efficiency is like 0.335%.
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"Another point is that the wasp's collection structures are yellow, not green like plant chlorophyll. The green color results from chlorophyll not using green light, but absorbing more blue end light. If the wasps look yellow, that might mean that they are efficient in a different part of the visible light spectrum."
That reminds me of the time I was a college freshman and, during orientation, saw some woman giving a presentation. I've forgotten most of it by now (including the original purpose of it all),
Why only a small portion of the abomen? (Score:2)
Given that this is Slashdot and we're obligated by the terms of the EULA to speculate obsessively on such things, I have a few guesses. I'll assume here that the research turns out to be true (and that there's som
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there's some chemical pathway from sunlight to [...] ATP
Got to get my hands on that gene!
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Got to get my hands on that gene!
I'm game as long as I don't end up bright yellow.
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Maybe this explains the Simpsons.
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Humans already synthesize a biomolecule that interacts with light sources. It's called Melanin. [sciencedirect.com]
Genetic engineering to utilize melanin to produce ATP would create natural evolutionary pressure to make humans darker colored, which might piss off certain "Ethnic purity" [cough, sputter] groups, but considering that being darkly colored is widely considered normal, and even attractive, I don't see this as being a problem.
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You'd look even more like a Simpsons character. That wouldn't be good for anyone.
I dunno - might be a good warning to others.
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Because what we need in the Western world is a greater energy intake into our bodies...
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Meanwhile in Africa...
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Because genetically engineering your population to gather solar energy is cheaper than feeding them.
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Because genetically engineering your population to gather solar energy is cheaper than feeding them.
You could look at it as the ultimate application of the "teach a man to fish" principle, I suppose.
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Certainly not cheaper, but more resistant to the whims of government.
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Until now, insects were thought to perform metabolism in an organ known as the fat body, which performs a similar function to the human liver.
Most of the fat body is in an insect's abdomen surrounding the gut, where it can quickly take up absorbed nutrients, though some is scattered elsewhere.
"We have found that the main metabolic activity in the Oriental hornet is actually in the yellow pigment layer," says Dr Plotkin.
The full-text article [springerlink.com], makes no mention of the "fat body" and doesn't get a hint by what reasoning this conclusion is to be derived? The correlation between sunny conditions and hornet's digging activity is not quite a strong indication to me - I mean: ants are most active when the weather is hot, yet they apparently don't relly on capturing the solar radiation.
No need for air? (Score:2)
I wonder how they would go on Mars? Should we give it a go?
Maybe not. Hard to see what we would send to kill the hornets if they got out of control.
Good news, everyone! Energy crisis solved! (Score:5, Funny)
Soon every suburban house will have its own massive angry hornet array and all our problems will be over.
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"Hello (*ow*) Power Company? (*ow*) Yes, we have a slight (*ow*) problem here. I think our (*ow*) MAHA is leaking. Sure, I'll hold. (*OWWWWWWWWW*)"
Waspinator (Score:4, Funny)
Terrorize!
*gets modded down*
"Waspinator has a headache in his whole body!"
Can they be implanted yet? (Score:2)
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I think the wasps have already developed an implantation procedure, but animal human trials have met with some resistance. The implant donors have had some nasty side effects, too.
The Wasp is a Plant? (Score:2)
If the wasp gets energy directly from the Sun, does that mean it is technically a plant? (See Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan [wikipedia.org] on Farscape.)
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No. What might have to happen is an adjustment to the classification system used, but they wouldn't be plants.
These would almost certainly still be some form of animal, they might end up being moved around, but in general plants don't relocate themselves at will in search of food.
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True.
I think the best way to think of an animal vs plant argument is something like this:
An animal can move anywhere it wants, independent of the ground below it.
A plant, however, is stuck to the ground it was born in. If it were to leave the ground, it would almost certainly die.
Very simplistic, but it covers everything i can think of.
Most algae would have difficulty with that classification. As would most basement dwellers, for that matter.
Obvious solution is obvious. (Score:2)
To tell you the truth I wonder why doesn't every non-nocturnal anymal do this, it's sounds like something very obvious prone to evolve early in multicelular animals.
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And in evolution, the innovations are few and far between with millions of crackpot ideas that never turn out right happening all the time (i.e. genetic defects). And it's no use saying "Hey, solar is there, let's use it!" because evolution doesn't work like that. It takes a completely random chance for an extraordinary event to happen that confers a significant advantage to the creature involved such that it will stand more chance of mating and passing said effect onwards (or at least, not detrimentally
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Why the long rant? I already know that.
Now dramatic changes in evolution are easier in organism with few cells or even single cells, these organisms do tend to "pirate" genes or features from their prey, that how eukaryotic life captured mitochondria for instance, unless there's a reason preventing bacteriophages from absorbing chloroplasts or the like, I would have assumed such thing has already happened.
So I'm nowhere saying that evolution has to bend to my will, I'm asking, why didn't it happen? My guess
Is it possible? (Score:2)
>The oriental hornet
Are you telling all other hornets and wasps that have that yellow stripe is not solar linked....maybe they just never thought to look close enough, maybe they are all solar linked.
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Resisting urge... failing...
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of nests of hornets.
That hurts.
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Now what do we call it?
Business as usual
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tanks
You're welcome. ;)