A recent study shows that bees use electric fields to find flowers that will give the most nectar. When bees buzz around flapping their wings really fast, they generate a small positive charge on themselves. When they land on a flower, that allows them to pick up more pollen from the plant. As more bees go to and from a flower, the flower gains a charge too. The study conducted was in a controlled environment. The scientists prepped a room of fake flowers that could be subtly charged. They were filled with sweet rewarding nectar and bitter nectar. The bees were released into this room for an extended period of time and it was recorded how often bees went to certain flowers. The flowers that had the sweet rewarding nectar in them had a slight charge on them that the bees clued into. The scientists discovered that the bees almost never went to the bitter flowers. They then reset the room and turned the charge off. When the bees went into the room this time they visited each type of flower at a 50 50 chance.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bumblebees-sense-electric-fields-in-flowers
NOS themes:
1. Science is collaborative
2. Science is based on evidence
3. Importance of repeatability
4. The role of curiosity
Tristin Stanley
I never realized that flowers had bright colors and varieties of scents just to attract pollinators like bees. Now finding out that they also give off an electric field is amazing. Plants are generally negatively charged, emitting weak electric fields while bees get a positive charge as they fly through the air.
ReplyDeleteResearchers show that when a bee lands the flower's potential changes and remains so for several minutes. Is it telling the other bees that a bee has recently been visiting? What other ways could flowers be communicating with bees?
http://scitechdaily.com/study-shows-that-bees-and-flowers-communicate-using-electrical-fields/
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172611866/honey-its-electric-bees-sense-charge-on-flowers
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ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting. In eighth grade, I learned that bees have a special vision that makes pollen of a flower stand out to them, but I never knew that they used electric fields. Its cool how when more bees visit the flower, the flower gains more charge. This must also help other bees so they know where the sweet nectar is.
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http://www.sewanee.edu/chem/Chem&Art/Detail_Pages/ColorProjects_2003/Crone/index.htm
This seems like a very innovative breakthrough in scientists knowledge of bees and maybe other animals. I found online that using the electrical currents the bees find a flower they like. But after finding that flower they will retrace that scent and only go to that flower. This could be very helpful in understanding the feeding and pollinating habits of bees
ReplyDeletehttp://www.coolearth.org/306/news-32/rainforest-news-155/bees-use-electric-fields-1880.html
This article is very interesting. I always suspected bees had an internal way of identifying which flowers to go to. When I was little I was really interested in the creatures. One day i noticed how some of the bees in the field would avoid certain flowers and how this continued to happen several more times. In fact, an article I found tells how the bee's mind is complex system of over 200,000 nerve cells, allowing them to memorize and even relay the location of flowers to other members of the hive through the "waggle dance".
ReplyDeleteInterested? Check out this link. http://www.intropsych.com/ch08_animals/specialized_intelligence_of_bees.html
That is a fascinating adaptation that bees have. It would be interesting to see if any other animals can sense/detect the electric charge in the flowers, and if they use that information in any way. I knew that bees used their sense of smell a lot and used some other common senses, but have never heard of the electric charge until now.
ReplyDeletehttp://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/inf6.html