While reading through Jurgen Tautz' new book, 'Communication Between Honeybees', he makes the following observation about Von Frisch's monumental step and fan studies and I thought it worthy to share:

'Von Frisch himself was at first not clear why he has set up this experiment or what he expected. It could be that some casual observations from his circle of students motivated him. They had seen that recruits did not necessarily visit the food source nearest the hive if other feeders are various distances had been set up. Here again is another example: An imaginative, unbiased, and playful attitude to research themes often leads to striking new discoveries.'

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