During the past few weeks we have had considerable exchange about
treatment for varroa and residues of chemical treatments in beeswax.
Perhaps for a little variety we can return to the topic of bee
research.  On 13 June, Scott Moser wrote a very perceptive piece
about how scientists conduct research, including the following
comment (abbreviated and modified here, with my alteration in
brackets):

"Also, be objective.  Don't try to make the results meet your
hypothesis.  This is a good example of "poor science".  A failed
experiment has merit, and is a starting place for further study.
Lastly, know your terminology.  Most of what we deal with is
hypothesis, not theory.  A theory is a hypothesis [for which no
exceptions have been found].  A law is a theory that has been shown
to be absolutely true every time."

    I didn't have time to respond to Scott's excellent comments at the
time but can now do so.

    1)  Some years ago I gave an invited lecture in New Jersey about
scientific method.  My host liked the presentation so much that he
had me write a summary for publication that can be viewed at the
following web site (thanks to Barry Birkey):

www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/biossep1993

    2)  Despite all of the animal behavior research conducted these
past several decades, I know of only one "law" (in Scott's sense)
that has emerged in that field: "The Law of Odor-Search Behavior."
Quite simply put, that law is the simple fact that an animal can find
a source of odor ONLY by coming in from downwind (or from down
current - in the case of fish and the like).

    Karl von Frisch had a grasp of elements of that law in the late
1930s and early 1940s, as can be seen at the following web sites:

www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/bw1993

www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/frisch1943

    A failure to recognize the validity of such laws (e.g., the Earth
travels around the Sun; dinosaurs lived on Earth hundreds of millions
years ago) can have serious consequences - especially in science.  If
all goes well, next month I will have another publication in print on
this topic, one which Barry Birkey will likely include in
beesource.com.

    May you all have a Happy Halloween!

                                                        Adrian


--
Adrian M. Wenner                (805) 963-8508 (home office phone)
967 Garcia Road                 [log in to unmask]
Santa Barbara, CA  93103        www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

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*    "T'is the majority [...that] prevails.  Assent, and you are sane
*       Demur, you're straightway dangerous, and handled with a chain."
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*                                    Emily Dickinson, 1862
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