can bees think?

drover · Sep 03 07 09:17

a further study confirms that no, they cannot.

49er · Sep 03 07 09:51

sure they do.........how else they know when to attack when their hives are disturbed

weird al · Sep 03 07 10:26

Ok, so can they fart?

P.C. · Sep 03 07 11:05

Are you related to Grover ? I LOVE Grover.

Of course bees can think.......in a bee-like way.

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*snicker*

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weird al · Sep 03 07 11:32

As for their 'thinking', how can we really say? But remember they have that dance they do that tells their buddies where the best 'grazing' is, as discovered by Karl von Frisch:

Waggle dance is a term used in [A title=Beekeeping href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beekeeping"]beekeeping[/A] and [A title=Ethology href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology"]ethology[/A] for a particular figure-eight dance of the [A title=Honeybee href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeybee"]honeybee[/A]. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share with their hive mates information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar or pollen, or both, and to water sources. Thus the waggle dance is a mechanism whereby successful foragers can recruit other bees in their colony to good locations for collecting various resources. It used to be thought that bees have two distinct recruitment dances—round dances and waggle dances—the former for indicating nearby targets and the latter for indicating distant target, but it is now known that a round dance is simply a waggle dance with a very short waggle run (see below). Austrian [A title=Ethology href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology"]ethologist[/A] [A title="Karl von Frisch" href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Frisch"]Karl von Frisch[/A] was one of the first who translated the meaning of the [STRONG class=selflink]waggle dance[/b].

Von Frisch unfortunately never touched on the fart issue as, apparently, he had bigger fish to fry.

Great opportunity missed

drover · Sep 03 07 11:33

hmm... well if bees CAN think, then i guess i should write a critcal letter to the organization that did the study.

and yes, bees can fart. how else would they get rid of their gas??

and as an bug-related aside, don't you think it's kinda weird how the combined metal capacity of all the ants in the world is actually greater than the combined mental capacity of humans? so like, if a alien we're looking down on earth and they had some instrument that was able to measure the collective brainpower of a species, they'd think that ants ruled the world. but i guess once they saw that humans lived in buildings and drove cars and killed ants like they were, well, ants, they'd change their mind.

P.C. · Sep 03 07 11:37

Well....there is never a place for ratio jokes.....but I'd like to think aliens could figure out that there are a few more ants than there are humans.

weird al wrote: Von Frisch unfortunately never touched on the fart issue as, apparently, he had bigger fish to fry.

So does he know if fish fart ? [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/liebe/g038.gif" border=0]

weird al · Sep 03 07 11:42

He did some research with whales but unfortunately was never heard from again....

drover · Sep 03 07 11:45

i think i should take this opportunity to mention that i think weird al's most recent video, "white and nerdy" is one of his stronger efforts.

P.C. · Sep 03 07 11:45

Waggle dance is a term used in [A title=Beekeeping href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beekeeping"][FONT color=#000000]beekeeping[/FONT][/A] and [A title=Ethology href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology"][FONT color=#000000]ethology[/FONT][/A] for a particular figure-eight dance of the [A title=Honeybee href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeybee"][FONT color=#000000]honeybee[/FONT][/A]. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share with their hive mates information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar or pollen, or both, and to water sources. Thus the waggle dance is a mechanism whereby successful foragers can recruit other bees in their colony to good locations for collecting various resources. It used to be thought that bees have two distinct recruitment dances—round dances and waggle dances—the former for indicating nearby targets and the latter for indicating distant target, but it is now known that a round dance is simply a waggle dance with a very short waggle run (see below). Austrian [A title=Ethology href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology"][FONT color=#000000]ethologist[/FONT][/A] [A title="Karl von Frisch" href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Frisch"][FONT color=#000000]Karl von Frisch[/FONT][/A] was one of the first who translated the meaning of the waggle dance.

Upon re-reading this, I wondered if ritualistic/instinctive 'dances' are a clear sign of thinking. I mean look what happens to the male species of humans when they are near food or hawt women. I would question if 'thinking' really enters into it.

P.C. · Sep 03 07 11:47

rofl weird al.

I think a more interesting topic would be.....can bees drink ?

weird al · Sep 04 07 12:10

drover wrote:
i think i should take this opportunity to mention that i think weird al's most recent video, "white and nerdy" is one of his stronger efforts.

That wasn't me - that was some upstart...

? · Sep 05 07 03:41

yes

Lise · Sep 05 07 09:19

No, I do not think that they can think but they are driven by a powerful drive by the collective. (think Borg in Star Trek) They defend their hive because they must, they gather nectar because they must... all instinct. They are mindless and cannot think on their own.

Sportsdude · Sep 05 07 09:23

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

they can think but its more like a one trick pony program or the worker bees would revolt and beeeeehead the queen bee. Maybe that's a goal Prez Bush can do, liberate the worker bee from oppression.