Միայն տեքստ Տպել | Ուղարկել այս էջը| Գրանցել էջը
British Council Science
beez attack © Roel Dillen - iStockphoto
'cubed' webzine
Anti-allergy parasite
Pancreas protector
Pop hit detector
Body Sensitive Cancer Treatment
Cheaper Smarter phones
Sports Training Tool
Light energy harvesting
Kitchen sink French
Clever cameras
Catalytic clothing
Smart surveillance
Super Broccoli
Kick and click
Pico secure access
Smartphone in Orbit
3D printed plane
Transmitting Data With Light
Brain cell bank
Energy for all seasons
Life-Saving Frogs
Dolphin Therapy
Rainbow money
In a Heartbeat
Restoring Speech
Safer Mosquitoes
Visualising Landscape Changes
Drumming Denim
Genetic clues for Alzheimer’s
Shower-Powered Radio
Assisted-Living Home
Fast-Scan Security
Keeping The Beat
Starfish non-stick drugs
Common Drug Could Reduce Cancer Risk
The Carbon Planet
3D Movie Tool
New Skin for Buildings
Pole Vaulting Pterosaurs
Bees Solve Problem
Rubber Tree Breakthrough
The Camouflage of Cats
Spotting PTSD
Spray on Clothes
The Biology of Thinking
Sphere TV
Driverless bus
Virtual London
Royal Holloway University
For more information on studying Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway University of London.
Queen Mary University of London
For more information on studying Biological Sciences at Queen Mary University of London.
cubed logo © British Council
Bees Solve Problem

Behaviour
With a PhD in pollination biology, Dr Nigel Raine has always been interested in bees, and in exploring why particular animals do certain things. So it was no surprise that Dr Raine, from the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London – and research colleagues Professor Lars Chittka and Dr Mathieu Lihoreau from Queen Mary, University of London –  discovered that bees can resolve a problem that occupies computers for days.

A shorter path
‘Bees are crucial pollinators for one-in-three mouthfuls of food that we eat,’ says Dr Raine. ‘One crucial thing is how they move around the landscape and take the pollen between the flowers.’ The team wanted to look at the bees’ routes between flowers, and how efficient they used energy. They conducted the experiment in a modified greenhouse on the roof of Queen Mary, using artificial flowers and a reservoir of nectar. They trained an individual bee to visit all the flowers in one location at the same time and as the bee became experienced, they recorded how she flew around and returned home with the nectar. They arranged the flowers differently, looking at how the routes changed. Previously it had been suggested that the bees simply plot a route in the order of where they found the flowers. ‘We set up the flowers,’ explains Dr Raine, ‘in a way such that if they followed the flowers in the order that they discovered them, the bees would follow a very long and circuitous path, much longer than needed. We wanted to see if they could actually find a shorter path and indeed they did.’
Bees on honey cells © Irina Tischenko - iStockphotoTravelling salesman
This is analogous to a mathematical problem called the ‘travelling salesman problem’. A salesman travelling to different places needs to travel efficiently using the shortest travel time. When visiting many places, ‘there is no elegant simple mathematical solution. You calculate the length of all possible routes and then say which is the shortest.’ A computer can calculate this but the experiment shows bees can too with a tiny little brain. ‘What would be of wider interest to people if we can understand how the bees are actually solving this problem.’ Solving it would aid our understanding for communication networks such as rerouting traffic, and specifically would fill out our ecological knowledge of how pollen is moved around.
LearnEnglish Science activities
Why not do a language activity based on this cubed story Bees solve problem? You can double-click on any word on this page for a dictionary definition.

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland)
Registered in Singapore as a branch (T09FC0012J) and as a charity (No 0768).
Our privacy and copyright statements.
Our commitment to freedom of information. Double-click for pop-up dictionary.

 Positive About Disabled People