You might already be aware that while developing Herstat, our highly effective cold sore treatment, we decided to include propolis as an ingredient. We did this in order to preserve the ointment and prevent it from becoming contaminated by the HSV-1 virus within the tube after being opened and used for the first time.
Despite being innovators in our field, we are far from the first people to use propolis. It is made by bees using plant resins, and has been used by humans for medicinal uses for centuries because it has a variety of beneficial properties. For instance, it is antimicrobial, regenerative, and an anaesthetic.
No one knows exactly when humans caught on to the fact that this natural substance held a range of health benefits. However, the first person to decide to utilise this resinous material might have chosen to do so after seeing insects and small rodents which had invaded the hive completely mummified and preserved in a layer of propolis.
To read more about how bees make and use propolis, please click here.
Other bee-inspired creations
The inspiration bees have been to humans doesn't stop at using propolis for medicinal uses and in our tubes of Herstat.
Architecture
The study of bees has led to amazing architecture in which hexagonal structures have been employed, such as the Honeycomb Apartments in Slovenia, The Museo Soumaya (museum) in Mexico, and the Centre Pompidou Metz in France.
Electricity Grid
It isn't just creative industries which have used bees as an inspiration to improve or diversify their work. REGEN Energy has patented a 'swarm-based intelligence' to load manage energy systems such as air conditioning, lighting, and pumps. The controllers they have made "work together like a swarm of bees, intelligently communicating and managing the duty cycles of the loads being controlled".
This can lead to a reduction in "peak demand charges" and electrical consumption. As well as this it can help identify equipment which is malfunctioning.
Computer processer
You might owe the fact that you're reading this on the internet right now to bees. The efficient way bees all work together has inspired many individuals to create computers which function in a similar way and are more powerful as a result.
In fact, research into building better computers is ongoing. In 2010 scientists at the Royal Holloway University of London discovered that bees can solve some complex mathematical problems faster than computers.
This study showed that the insects managed to quickly learn to fly from flower to flower using the shortest routes, solving what was called "the travelling salesman problem". However, this maths problem kept the computers used in the research busy for days.
A Guardian article stated, "Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest. Bees manage to reach the same solution using a brain the size of a grass seed."
Aircraft landing system
Most recently, last month a new aircraft landing system was developed and successfully trialled. The system prevents pilots from struggling to safely land if GPS signals to the aircraft are blocked or hacked.
One of the researchers involved, from the University of Queensland Brain Institute, explains, "Bees use optic flow for their descent – using the rate of motion beneath them to guide their landing – and recent testing also shows that they may also use stereo vision for their touchdown, which is using two eyes to judge distance.
"We have incorporated both of these techniques in our automatic landing system, but modified them for use in a fixed-wing aircraft.
"The plane used the visual system to guide itself, sense its altitude, control its throttle and shut itself off when it landed.
"All commercial aircraft need to have backup systems, and this research provides the option of having different types of sensing. If one isn't working then the pilot has something else to fall back on."
Get rid of cold sores fast
If you want to effectively ease the symptoms of a cold sore and shorten the duration of an outbreak, try Herstat's highly effective treatment ointment. In trials participants were free of all cold sore symptoms, including healing skin, by day seven of their outbreak.
To purchase some today, please click here. Furthermore, if you would like to reduce the frequency of your outbreaks, try our LipCare Stick, for use in between outbreaks.
Photo © Martina Rathgens via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence