When people mention bees, people first think of their superb ability to collect honey and build nests, as well as the narcotics used for self-defense. In fact, bees also have magical sniffing ability, navigation ability and memory. Researchers at the Institute of Brain Research at the University of Queensland, Australia, released the latest research findings in this area.
Insect circles Rolls Royce
The research team led by the scientist Mandame Srinivasan focused on how bees' brains work, as well as the bees' flight and navigation systems, vision and smell.
According to a researcher from the Institute for Neuroscience Vision and Sensory, Charles Claudianno, on the 10th, said: "The bee's brain structure is amazing and it can be called the 'Rolls' of the insect world."
The bee's brain is elliptical and has only one sesame seed, which is 20 times the brain volume of the fruit fly. Compared with other insects, honeybees have more genes associated with their sense of smell. They can distinguish hundreds of different odors, can categorize the smell of plants, and can even smell flowers pollen or nectar that are secreted a few meters away.
Bees navigate themselves by analyzing odors, colors, and distances. Judith Reinhard, a senior researcher at the institute, said: "Bees' nose is like an 'antenna' with countless odor receptors that can sense the faint odor molecules in the air."
The head of the research team Sri Niwasang added: "Smells stimulate the bee's navigational memory. They can remember the position and color of the flowers, just like the smell of cologne can arouse your memories of meeting someone long ago."
Bionic Technology
The University of Queensland research team is working with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia to try to uncover how insects represented by honeybees can memorize odors and develop more sensitive electronic noses.
For many years, the industry has been using electronic noses to “smell†white spirits, perfumes, foods and beverages, as well as identify harmful substances.
Researchers are trying to apply bee bionic technology to unmanned aerial vehicles. Like a bee, an aircraft can not only measure the speed of flight, but also can navigate and control speed based on numerical values.
Scientists have confirmed that 30% of bees and humans have the same gene, including many genes responsible for the operation of the brain.
According to Claudianno, the brain structure of bees is quite sophisticated relative to their size, but similar to the human brain, they need continuous sensory stimulation and receive information to fully grow.
Sniffing master
The bees have been living on the earth for about 25 million years. There are many kinds of bees in the world. Queensland brain researchers took experimental samples as European common bees. The Institute has several beehives built at the University of Queensland. Each beehive feeds 10,000 to 20,000 bees.
The bees use prickle needles to protect the interests of bees. After deafness, the needles are left in the victim's body and the bees will soon die. But bee stings do not cause their own death. Under normal circumstances, most bees can survive for 6 weeks and bees can live for several years.
Bees have their own language and are represented in different flying forms. They fly at speeds of 7 to 8 kilometers per hour. For every kilos of honey nectar produced by bees, raw materials need to be collected from about one million flowers.
A British company had previously used the bees' sensitive sniffing talent to successfully train various types of sniffing bees, such as the detonation bee that sniffed explosives. Once company trained bees smell suspicious odors, they quickly reach out to the tube, which is used to suck nectar - muzzle. They have the professional ability to find rotten and spoiled items in the warehouse. The most valuable military skills are sniffing explosives, such as homemade explosives, military explosives, and C-4 plastic explosives. (Liu Xiaofan)