The journey of food involves insect pollinators for 75% of crops, but what cues make them pick specific flowers? Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden, Flinders University in Australia and NCBS, Bengaluru, looked at the preferences of pollinators across continents. We replicated cues from flowers — colour, shape, size, odour — in the form of artificial flower lures,” said Shannon Olsson from NCBS. The researchers approached artist Thomas Pausz at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology to create the non-flower. The result is six ‘non-flower’ artefacts on show at the V&A alongside Virtual Reality films based on fractal geometries.

Source: The Hindu June 12, 2019 18:45 UTC