MAE SA MAI, Thailand -- The Phantom whirred skyward, hovered, then veered off to skim over a tropical forest, peering into its tangled, soaring canopy. It was a test mission for this agile drone -- not to target an enemy hiding below, but to bring new life to woodlands by ''bombing'' them with cascades of seeds.
Directing the drone team from a grassy knoll at the forest's edge was Stephen Elliott, a biologist and pioneer in the regrowth of perhaps the earth's most complex ecosystem -- a tropical forest. Now, he is breaching another frontier: preparing to harness drones for work that currently requires intensive manual labor in remote, treacherous terrain where humans are loathe to tread.
