A new study reveals how we could design robots to think like bees. Honey bees excel in weighing effort against reward and risk, quickly determining which flowers can provide sustenance for their colony. A study recently published in the journal eLife illustrates how eons of evolution have fine-tune
Bee. Credit: Théotime Colin
“We trained 20 bees to recognize five different colored ‘flower disks’. Blue flowers always had sugar syrup,” says Dr. MaBouDi. “Green flowers always had quinine [tonic water] with a bitter taste for bees. Other colors sometimes had glucose.” “If the bees were confident that a flower would have food, then they quickly decided to land on it taking an average of 0.6 seconds),” says Dr. MaBouDi. “If they were confident that a flower would not have food, they made a decision just as quickly.”
The team then built a computer model from first principles aiming to replicate the bees’ decision-making process. They found the structure of their computer model looked very similar to the physical layout of a bee brain.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Researchers discover key functions of plasma membrane–cell wall adhesion in rice and critical genes involvedIn a study published in Nature Plants, a research team led by Prof. Chao Daiyin from the Center of Excellence for Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified a novel protein family in plants named as GAPLESS, and revealed that members of this family mediate the adhesion between the cell wall and the plasma membrane at the Casparian strip (CS), a barrier in the root endodermis. This adhesion plays a critical role in controlling nutrient transport and the growth development of rice.
Read more »
Surprising Findings – Scientists Discover Super Low-Noise GenesSilke Hauf and her research team made a surprisingly quiet discovery during their study on cell division. They observed that the expression of RNA in cells is always accompanied by a certain level of variability, or noise, in the amount of RNA produced. Interestingly, Hauf and her team identified mu
Read more »
Scientists Discover Amazing Practical Use For Leftover Coffee GroundsWe could be producing concrete that's 30 percent stronger by processing and adding charred coffee grounds to the mix, researchers in Australia have discovered.
Read more »
Shipwreck hunters discover a schooner's 142-year-old remains in Lake MichiganBuilt in 1867, the Trinidad was plagued with structural issues and sank nearly a century and a half ago. Historians intend to nominate it for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Read more »
Scientists Discover 'Pure Math' Is Written Into Evolutionary GeneticsMathematicians delight in the beauty of math that so many of us don't see.
Read more »
Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers sayOur brains, neuroscientists warn, are developing new circuits affecting our non-digital reading
Read more »