{"id":3895,"date":"2005-12-12T17:19:33","date_gmt":"2005-12-12T17:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groonk.net\/blog\/?p=3895"},"modified":"2009-08-14T14:58:52","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T20:58:52","slug":"honey-bees-know-who-you-are-and-what-you-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/2005\/12\/honey-bees-know-who-you-are-and-what-you-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Honey bees know <em>who<\/em> you are and <em>what<\/em> you look like"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/12\/beeLookingFace2.JPG\" alt=\"beeLookingFace2\" title=\"beeLookingFace2\" width=\"200\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8149\" \/>Honeybees may look pretty much all alike to us. But it seems we may not look all alike to them. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.world-science.net\/exclusives\/051209_beesfrm.htm\" class=\"external external_icon\">A study has found that they can learn to recognize human faces in photos, and remember them for at least two days<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The findings toss new uncertainty into a long-studied question that some scientists considered largely settled, the researchers say: how humans themselves recognize faces.<\/p>\n<p>The results also may help lead to better face-recognition software, developed through study of the insect brain, the scientists added.<\/p>\n<p>Many researchers traditionally believed facial recognition required a large brain, and possibly a specialized area of that organ dedicated to processing face information. The bee finding casts doubt on that, said Adrian G. Dyer, the lead researcher in the study.<\/p>\n<p>He recalls that when he made the discovery, it startled him so much that he called out to a colleague, telling her to come quickly because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to believe it\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand bring a camera!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Dyer said that if bees can learn to recognize humans in photos, then they reasonably might also be able to recognize real-life faces. On the other hand, he remarked, this probably isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the explanation for an adage popular in some parts of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kill a bee because its nestmates will remember and come after you.<\/p>\n<p>Francis Ratnieks of Sheffield University in Sheffield, U.K., says that apparent bee revenge attacks of this sort actually occur because a torn-off stinger releases chemicals that signal alarm to nearby hivemates. Says Dyer, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bees don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t normally go around looking at faces.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I knew it! I knew those bees from my childhood had it out for me.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2005\/12\/12\/bees_recognize_human.html\" class=\"external external_icon\">boingboing<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Honeybees may look pretty much all alike to us. But it seems we may not look all alike to them. A study has found that they can learn to recognize human faces in photos, and remember them for at least two days. The findings toss new uncertainty into a long-studied question that some scientists considered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1345,1414,1413,1417,1418],"class_list":["post-3895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","tag-6-legged-domination","tag-bees","tag-honeybees","tag-insects","tag-there-bee-danger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}