Meet the dog on a mission to protect bees
It all started when Maple's handler Sue Stejskal was put in contact with Professor Meghan Milbrath by a local vet.Prof Milbrath works at Michigan State Universtiy, and has been searching for a way to help screen and diagnose diseases that affect local honeybees.So the pair teamed up and trained Maple to use her sniffing powers to search local beehives for any traces of American foulbrood – a disease that is a big threat to honeybee larvae.However, Maple takes health and safety very seriously, and her and her handler both wear protective suits whilst they are out working.Maple's yellow outfit comes complete with a protective veil, a yellow suit and four booties to protect her paws from any potential bee-stings.Maple's work has been so successful that the University says it wants to train up more dogs, and prof Milbrath and Sue Stejskal are teaming up to write a training book to help educate other teams about their work.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Outbreak of 'Frankenstein' rabbits with face tentacles now poses threat to HUMANS: Doctor warns which states disease will spread to next
More 'Frankenstein' rabbits are appearing across the US, sparking fears of a wider outbreak. Originally spotted in Colorado, these bizarre rabbits, with tentacle-like growths sprouting from their faces, have now been reported in Minnesota, , and .
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
US pursuing stake in struggling chipmaker Intel, commerce secretary says
The US government is pursuing a stake in Intel, the US commerce secretary said on Tuesday, confirming reports of discussions between officials and the company that have circulated for the better part of a week. The Trump administration wants to convert funding from the Chips and Science Act, which funds research and manufacturing of semiconductor chips in the US, into equity in the struggling tech company, according to Howard Lutnick. Intel was once a leader in producing computer processors, but is now seen as a laggard behind the likes of Nvidia, which last month became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn valuation after a stratospheric stock market rise. Lutnick criticized the structure of the Chips Act, signed into law in 2022 under Joe Biden. 'Why are we giving a company worth $100bn this kind of money? What is in it for the American taxpayer? And the answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money,' he told the CNBC financial news network. 'So we'll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration, we'll get equity in return for it.' Shares in Intel rallied 7.5% in New York. The conversion of the funding would not confer governing rights typical of a company's largest shareholder to the federal government, according to Lutnick. 'It's not governance, we're just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity. Non-voting,' he said. Lutnick did say the goal of the equity stake would be much the same as that of the Chips Act, bluntly stating: 'We need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan.' A large portion of the world's semiconductors originate from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), based in the city of Hsinchu. TSMC has also received Chips Act funding to build semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the US, with construction beginning in Arizona. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also said on Tuesday that a potential stake would not oblige US businesses to purchase Intel chips. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion 'The last thing we're going to do is take a stake and then try to drum up business,' he told CNBC. 'The stake would be a conversion of the grants and maybe increase the investment into Intel to help stabilize the company for chip production here in the US. There's no talk of trying to force companies to buy from Intel.' The prospect of large US investment in Intel has reinvigorated investor interest in the company, whose stock value has declined by half over the past five years. Shares jumped last week after initial reports of discussions with the US government, and the Japanese conglomerate Softbank announced late on Monday that it would take a $2bn stake in the company. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform. Finally, our guide at lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.
The Independent
13 hours ago
- The Independent
Researchers discovered by accident a possible alternative to LASIK surgery
LASIK eye surgery has been performed successfully in the U.S. since the late 90s, helping nearly 40 million patients to improve their vision through a procedure that cuts into the eye using lasers. Some 600,000 of the Food and Drug Administration-approved surgeries are carried out on American adults each year. Now, researchers say they have come up with an alternative method that wouldn't need invasive incisions and could be cheaper. It uses a process called electromechanical reshaping, which helps to reshape the cornea using electrical current. The cornea is a dome-shaped, clear structure at the front of the eye that helps us to process images. Irregularly shaped corneas are the cause of nearsighted and farsighted vision and astigmatism, and LASIK fixes that by burning away tissue to reshape it. 'The whole effect was discovered by accident,' Brian Wong, a professor and surgeon at the University of California, Irvine, explained in a statement. 'I was looking at living tissues as moldable materials and discovered this whole process of chemical modification.' While the work is in its early stages, it could offer an alternative to LASIK. Although the surgery has been safely performed for nearly 30 years with rare complications, it has some limitations and risks. The surgeons say that cutting the cornea compromises the structural integrity of the eye. This procedure has yet to be performed in humans, but researchers previously used electromechanical reshaping to alter scars and skin in pigs and reshape cartilage-rich rabbit ears. Working with rabbit eyeballs, they constructed platinum 'contact lenses' that served as a template for the corrected shape of the cornea, placing them over a rabbit eyeball in a saline solution meant to mimic natural tears. After about a minute following a small electric charge to the lens, the cornea's curvature conformed to the shape of the lens. That happened in the same amount of time as LASIK, with fewer steps, no incisions, and less expensive equipment. Then, they repeated the step on 12 other rabbit eyeballs. Of those dozen, 10 were treated as if they had nearsighted vision, and the researchers found success. In others, they saw that their technique might be able to reverse some chemical-caused cloudiness to the cornea, which is currently only treatable through a complete transplant of the cornea. In the future, the researchers are planning tests on living rabbits, and looking at far-sightedness and astigmatism. Uncertainties in the team's scientific funding have put those plans on hold, but Michael Hill, a professor of chemistry at Occidental College, will present their findings this week at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society. 'There's a long road between what we've done and the clinic. But, if we get there, this technique is widely applicable, vastly cheaper and potentially even reversible,' said Hill.
