microphone near clover
To study the influence of a total solar eclipse on bee behavior, researchers researchers at the University of Missouri organized a cadre of citizen scientists and elementary school classrooms in setting up acoustic monitoring stations to listen in on bees’ buzzing–or lack thereof–as the August 2017 solar eclipse passed over North America. Here, what looks like a white ball of fur is actually a flash-drive-sized microphone with a windscreen, tied to a short post in a patch of clover. (Photo credit: Candace Galen, Ph.D.)