As I said before, I do not have a dog in this fight, but there are some 
simple questions that make the dance theory attractive.

1. If the dance does nothing, then it should have disappeared long ago.

2. How do bees convey information about down-wind nectar sources if odor 
is all?

3. Why, when a source is detected, do many bees suddenly show up and 
exploit it? If odor is all, how is distance, direction and quality of 
the nectar source transferred to those bees?

4. Why is speculation about what is happening dismissed as speculation 
then the "real reason" is speculated on? (Which is what a lot of posts 
here are doing. "Their guess is wrong and my guess is right. That is 
really bad science.)

I realize we should not anthropomorphize, but I find it difficult to 
locate an odor to a specific place without a very random search. 
However, given some idea where it is coming from, it is more easily 
found. Fortunately I do not have to watch the person dance, but a simple 
"in the back of the basement" gives direction and an approximate 
distance ( lots of smelly things down there). From there on, my nose leads.

The odor is there. Everyone in the house can smell it. If there is no 
wind, it is distributed uniformly and nearly impossible to locate. If 
one of us finds it, how do the others find it without some direction?

In this "controversy" there seems to be little middle ground, where both 
the dance and odor are part of the whole. But that does make it interesting.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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