Technology

At German airports, bees are the canaries

Air Travel, Airports, Health, Technology, ,

Girl in bee costume. Field Museum


(Courtesy Field Museum, via Flickr Creative Commons)

According to a story by Tanya Mohn in the New York Times, Düsseldorf International Airport and seven other airports in Germany are using bees as ‘biodetectives.’  Clues about the air quality around each airport show up in the honey.

“The first batch of this year’s harvested honey from some 200,000 bees was tested in early June…and indicated that toxins were far below official limits…”

That’s good news of course, but here’s my favorite part of the story:

Beekeepers from the local neighborhood club keep the bees. The honey, “Düsseldorf Natural,” is bottled and given away as gifts.

The article describes what sort of substances the honey was tested for (“certain hydrocarbons and heavy metals”) and offers intriguing information about the pros, cons and reliability of biomonitoring – the use of living organisms to test environmental health:

Assessing environmental health using bees as “terrestrial bioindicators“ is a fairly new undertaking, said Jamie Ellis, assistant professor of entomology at the Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory, University of Florida in Gainesville. “We all believe it can be done, but translating the results into real-world solutions or answers may be a little premature.” Still, similar work with insects to gauge water quality has long been successful.

You can read the full article here. And you can be sure I’m busy as one of those airport bees trying to figure out how to get some of that Dusseldorf honey for Souvenir Sunday.

Airports of the future?

Air Travel, History, Technology, , ,

What would the airport of the future look like? As this collection of links to past articles in Popular Science makes clear, from the 1930’s through the 1960’s, people have floated some pretty wild ideas, including floating airports.   Other possibilities?  Skyscraper airports, airports with cotton runways, and rotary airports.

What’s your idea for the airport of the future?

WestJet offers hands-free Clapper technology

Air Fare Deals, Air Travel, Fun Stuff, Technology, ,

Here’s an interesting idea:

Today WestJet announced that it is introducing Clapper technology on board its aircraft that will allow guests to operate amenities such as lights and live seatback television, simply by clapping their hands.

“Made popular on television in the mid-1980s, Clapper technology is making an in-flight comeback thanks to the addition of a newly patented transmitter. Guests wearing the transmitting device while seated can clap once to activate the reading light in the console above their head, clap twice to change the channel on their live seatback television, or clap three times to illuminate the flight attendant call button. Transmitters are available to purchase online for $19.95, and the devices come in a variety of colors.”

Unfortunately, this technology is not yet available because it’s just an April Fools joke. But WestJet is offering a real 10% discount code on flights booked today for travel through June 29, 2010.  Use promo code APR02 and the coupon code UYQGDGN.