[ExI] this might sting your interest

[Damien Broderick]

<http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-complex-mathematical-problem-bees.html>

Bumblebees can find the solution to a complex mathematical problem which 
keeps computers busy for days.

Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London and Royal Holloway, 
University of London have discovered that bees learn to fly the shortest 
possible route between flowers even if they discover the flowers in a 
different order. Bees are effectively solving the 'Travelling Salesman 
Problem', and these are the first animals found to do this.

The Travelling Salesman must find the shortest route that allows him to 
visit all locations on his route. Computers solve it by comparing the 
length of all possible routes and choosing the shortest. However, bees 
solve it without computer assistance using a brain the size of grass seed.

Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary's School of Biological and 
Chemical Sciences said: "In nature, bees have to link hundreds of 
flowers in a way that minimises travel distance, and then reliably find 
their way home - not a trivial feat if you have a brain the size of a 
pinhead! Indeed such travelling salesmen problems keep supercomputers 
busy for days. Studying how bee brains solve such challenging tasks 
might allow us to identify the minimal neural circuitry required for 
complex problem solving."

The team used computer controlled artificial flowers to test whether 
bees would follow a route defined by the order in which they discovered 
the flowers or if they would find the shortest route. After exploring 
the location of the flowers, bees quickly learned to fly the shortest route.

As well as enhancing our understanding of how bees move around the 
landscape pollinating crops and wild flowers, this research, which is 
due to be published in The American Naturalist this week, has other 
applications. Our lifestyle relies on networks such as traffic on the 
roads, information flow on the web and business supply chains. By 
understanding how bees can solve their problem with such a tiny brain we 
can improve our management of these everyday networks without needing 
lots of computer time.

Co-author and Queen Mary colleague, Dr. Mathieu Lihoreau adds: "There is 
a common perception that smaller brains constrain animals to be simple 
reflex machines. But our work with bees shows advanced cognitive 
capacities with very limited neuron numbers. There is an urgent need to 
understand the neuronal hardware underpinning animal intelligence, and 
relatively simple nervous systems such as those of insects make this 
mystery more tractable."