the npr story was preceeded by an article in DISCOVER magazine's nov.1997
issue, which was a previous post on the list...  the researcher, Barbara
Shipman,  at the univ. of rochester(ny),  working  on the geometry of 6-D
flag manifold projections into 2-D hexagons recognized the pattern of the
bee dances (both round and waggle) emerging, and  proceeds to extrapolate
a quantum mechanics/honeybee perception hypothesis that includes some
speculation about quarks...the quirky thing is that her father was a bee
researcher, she started  college as a biochemistry major studying
honeybee larval hemolymph, and then switched to mathematics...maybe we
can lure her back to work on  mite control?