Honeybees help gather data about a city's health
Analyzing honeybees could provide key insight into a city's microbiome as well as the health of its people, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Microbiome. It explains that "honeybees may be effective collaborators in gathering samples of urban microbiota," due to their foraging habits.
"Honeybees will gather a vast number of microbes day to day, far beyond things they are seeking out," said Kevin Slavin, who worked on the report. "They've been optimized by evolution to do everything that the swabs do." The research team collected samples from hives and hove debris in New York City, Melbourne, Venice, and Tokyo. They found that each city had its own "unique genetic signature," per The Independent. "It didn't feel like a disjointed metric from all of the other things that we know about these cities," said Elizabeth Hénaff, lead author of the report. "It actually kind of felt like a puzzle piece that we didn't even know existed."
A microbiome is "the unseen communities of microbes, fungi, viruses, and bacteria that live inside and around us," as defined by Bloomberg. Research has shown that exposure to a diverse microbiome generally leads to better health outcomes. "For those of us who live in cities – which is more than half of the global population at this point – it is important to be able to characterize the microbiomes of the cities that we live in, and work in, and sleep in," commented Hénaff.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This analysis could be used in the future to quantify differences in health among various groups as a result of environmental inequality. "We tie that, currently, to things like pollution or even shade, [but] the idea is in part just to collect as much data as we can ... to better understand what produces healthier neighborhoods, and can it be measured," explained Slavin.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.
-
Are 'judge shopping' rules a blow to Republicans?
Today's Big Question How the abortion pill case got to the Supreme Court
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Climate change is driving Indian women to choose sterilization
under the radar Faced with losing their jobs, they are making a life-altering decision
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
'A great culture will be lost if the EV brigade gets its way'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The hot controversy surrounding solar geoengineering
under the radar Solar geoengineering is feeling the burn
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Citizen science says anyone can be a scientist
The explainer Yes, even you
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
The de-extinction process to bring woolly mammoths back to life
Under the Radar Biotechnology start-up's stem cell research brings possibility of genetically engineered species a step closer
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
What is the Anthropocene — and more importantly, when?
Under The Radar Just because a panel of scientists has rejected calls to classify a new global epoch does not mean it hasn't already begun
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Why the Y chromosome is vanishing and what this means for the future
The Explainer A new sex gene could be on the evolution pipeline
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
One hundred new deep-sea species found off the coast of New Zealand
Under the radar Scientists explored the uncharted depths of the Bounty Trough
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published