Scientists are using transmitters the size of three or four grains of rice, powered by a tiny hearing-aid battery, to track bees. The transmitters are small and light enough to attach to the backs of bees from two larger bee species with just a bit of eyelash glue and superglue.

Even loaded up with these backpacks, nearly a third of their body weight, "they fly beautifully," says zoologist Martin Wikelski, a 2008 National Geographic Emerging Explorer and director of the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany.

Honeybees have been disappearing and scientist hope that using radio transmitters may be a way to find out where they are going and why and they may help scientists explore native bee behaviors and understand the best ways to use native bees as crop pollinators instead of domestic honeybees.

Read about the disappearing honeybees here.

Learn more about the tiny transmitters on National Geographic News.