Tomas Mozer addressed the following (and more):

>Ted Hancock wrote:
>...This isn't sound biology. In fact I can see both men going off thinking
>the other was the reason the swarm landed. Bees don't have ears, so unless
>they can feel vibrations through the air they should be indifferent to
>noise. I am not going to rule that possibility out though. An article titled
>Quantum Honeybees by Adam Frank in the Nov. 1997 issue of  Discover magazine
>says that mathematician Barbara Shipman's work suggests bees -"....are
>somehow sensitive to what's going on in the quantum world of quarks, that
>quantum mechanics is as important to their perception of the world as sight,
>sound and smell." ( This article says bees may be using six dimensional math
>to perform their communication dances. I'm hoping some Ph.D. type can read
>that article and explain it to me in one syllable words)...

   I am a PhD. type and have read that article and the original article as
published in a scientific journal.

   In 1957 the eminent philosopher Karl Popper wrote, "It is easy to obtain
confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory --- if we look for
confirmations ....Confirmations should count only if they are the result of
RISKY PREDICTIONS..."  (See p. 215 of our 1990 book, ANATOMY OF A
CONTROVERSY... Columbia University Press).

   The notion of banging pans to bring down swarms has been with us for
centuries.  Consider ten hypothetical cases:  One had "success" but the
other nine failed.  Which of those ten will report the results of their
"experiment"?  In other words, anecdotes count for little.

   As regard quarks, we see here only a suggestion about what might happen,
with no experimental evidence for support but with much evidence that bee
dances don't work as claimed.

   Hold on folks!  Bees are insects.  Can they really accomplish feats that
surpass what we human beings can do?

   The bottom line:  What will people think about the quark speculation ten
or twenty years from now?  And how will beekeepers have benefited from that
speculation (and any subsequent research) by then?

                                                Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106

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*
*  "When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory,
*     we must accept that fact and abandon the theory, even when
*     the theory is supported by great names and generally
*     accepted."
*
*                                       Claude Bernard --- 1865
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