What are pollinators?

Rowers are known to employ all manner of trickery to attract pollinators, from taking the shape of an insect mate to emitting wafts of rotting flesh. A South African flower lures in its main pollinators, Desmometopa flies, with the scent of a fresh meal. The flower produces a cocktail of chemicals that mimics those released by a wounded honey bee, drawing flies into a pollen-coated chamber.

Like the GPS in our phones and cars, our brain’s system assesses where we are and where we are heading by integrating multiple signals relating to our position and the passage of time. The brain normally makes these calculations with minimal effort, so we are barely conscious of them. It is only when we get lost or when our navigation skills are compromised by injury or a neurodegenerative disease that we get a glimpse of how critical this mapping-and-navigation system is to our existence.