[ExI] this might sting your interest

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Damien Broderick
> Subject: [ExI] this might sting your interest
> 
>
<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... 
> relatively simple nervous systems such as those of insects 
> make this mystery more tractable."


I have been pondering this in the past couple days.  I have a google alert
on bees, so it sent me the link.  I don't know what the heck to make of it.
Bees do some amazing things with their little bit of brain.  Apparently
there exists some algorithm for solving the travelling saleman problem that
we haven't discovered yet, but evolution has.  To state the absolutely
obvious: is this wicked cool or what!

{8-]

spike