Territorial bee wars

Territorial bee wars

Bees at war The Australian stingless bee Tetragonula Carbonaria is one of only 500 bee species that lack a sting – but that doesn’t deter their colonies from waging territorial wars against their neighbours, resulting in hundreds of casualties and murdered...
Can bees play soccer?

Can bees play soccer?

The bee’s ability to grasp this novel task is a big score for insect intelligence, demonstrating that they’re even more complex thinkers than we thought. Moreover, they did it all not just despite their tiny brains—but because of them.   A group of...
Training bees to detect bombs

Training bees to detect bombs

In order to help study bees, scientists decided they first needed to train them, and the best way to train a bee is to give it sugar every time it does something right, and give it nothing when it gets it wrong. It’s a bit like parenting in the 1950s. So for example,...
Caring about bees & biodiversity

Caring about bees & biodiversity

The Global Assessment of Nature Report draws on 15,000 reference materials and has been compiled by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This article draws from a number of the topics in this report. Our lives...