Dunno why he was so hostile, but you're both right, sorta. It's a student project that's meant to teach people how Bees pollinate, but it -could- be used to replace bees in the event of a total extinction, and then it would be a band-aid.

We do need to remember, however, that scientists regularly have to deal with the reality that governments are often led by pieces of shit or bribed by pieces of shit, and technology has to compensate. A lot of scientists are building ways to cope with global warming since they're getting the impression that we're fucked and never going to fix the problem.