Busy Buzzing Bees

Though I said I was going on a short break from blogging, I felt a little recharged today. A good workout at the gym must have done the trick. So, I decided to share something I read. Note that this is a break from the brief break i.e. mind still not functioning as it should.

Anyway, while I was on the treadmill brisk-walking to nowhere, I kept myself occupied with the magazine, Discover. A magazine which covers science, technology and the future. There were too many heavy articles for me to comprehend while walking up an imaginary hill. Skipped those. Then I came across an article - "How people will die in the year 2030?". Skipped that. Not when I am on the treadmill!

Finally, an interesting article written by Liza Lentini - on the last page of the magazine.

20 Things you didn't know about Bees:

1. There are 16,000 species. Most are solitary insects; only about 5 percent are social bees, the most common being the honey bee. As many as 80,000 of them colonise a single hive. And we complain about needing our space!

2. Drones - the male honeybees- live only for mating with the queen. If there is a shortage of food in the hive, the workers kick their lazy, gigolo asses out. hmmm.. wonder if that happens with humans - when a woman gets tired of her toyboy.

3. To die for: When drones mate, they die afterwards from a ruptured abdomen. Sex detaches their endophallus, which gets stuck inside the queen. OUCH!

4. She continues to mate - the drones aren't terribly smart, apparently - until she collects more than 70 million sperm from multiple males. Better not say anything. I might get cyber-eggs thrown at me.

5. The queen was known as the king until the late 1660s, when Dutch scientist Jan Swammerdam dissected the hive's big bee and discovered ovaries. So typical... they assume they rule. :)

6. Someone call Homeland Security! Australian researchers discovered that honeybees can distinguish human faces. The insects were shown black-and-white pictures and given treats for right answers. Maybe we should have honeybees working at our immigration.

7. Oh, someone did call Homeland Security. In the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project, Los Alamos scientists have trained bees to recognise explosives. Could we use these bees for Altantuya's case?

8. The term "honeymoon" is derived from an old northern European custom in which newlyweds would consume a daily cup of mead, made with fermented honey, for a month.

9. The term "bees knees" was coined by American cartoonist Tad Dorgan, who was also responsible for "the cat's pajamas", "the flea's eyebrows," "the canary's tusks," and (apropos of nothing) "Yes, we have no bananas."

10. During World War 1, honey was used to treat the wounds of soldiers because it attracts and absorbs moisture, making it a valuable healing agent. The next time you have an injury in the kitchen, just reach for your bottle of honey. While you are doing that, go ahead and prepare a cup of hot tea with a dollop of honey.

11. Honey never spoils. Ever. So that dusty honey bottle sitting on a shelf at your local sundry shop could be 10 years old.

12. Bumblebees can estimate time intervals. Researchers have found that the insects extend their tongues in tandem with the rhythm of a sweet reward. This aids in the hunt for nectar, whose availability waxes and wanes. No comment ... ;)

13. Melittosphex burmensis, recently found preserved in amber in a mine in northern Myanmar, is the oldest bee known. It lived 100 million years ago. Now the question is.. male or female?

14. After he had pioneered the laws of genetics with pea plants, Austrian monk Grego Mendel bred a strain of hybrid bees. Unfortunately, they were so vicious he had to kill them. awww...

15. The buzz that you hear when a bee approaches is the sound of its four wings moving at 11,400 strokes per minute. Bees fly an average of 15 miles per hour. I wonder if "auntie kaypoh" has the same ability. She seems to be everywhere within seconds with news about so-and-so.

16. A newly hatched queen immediately kills all other hatched and unhatched queens in the hive. whoa! the ultimate bitchiness. I wonder if that happens in the corporate world. hmmm..

17. The Honeybee Boogie: In 1943 Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch published his study on the dances bees perform to alert fellow workers. A round dance indicates that food is close by; a waggle dance means it is distant.

18. Worker bees have strictly regimented roles, including that of undertakers who drag their dead siblings from the hive. Sounds like a government I know.

19. On the April 1984 Challenger flight, 3,300 bees, housed in a special but confining box, adapted perfectly to zero gravity and built a nearly normal comb. But they didn't go to the toilet. Since bees excrete only outside the hive, they held it in for seven days. A NASA spokesperson said the space hive was "just as clean as a pin." I wonder if our two space-bound fellows will be able to emulate the bees. Tell them to stay away from anything spicy. Trying to undo that space suit after a good hot and spicy meal will be challenging.

20. According to an old wives' tale, a bee entering your house means a visitor is on his way, and if you kill the bee, the visitor won't be a pleasant one. Suffice to say, invite that unexpected honeybee guest to sit down to tea. If I get word that the visitor is George Clooney or Colin Farrell, then I will capture the bee and put it in a ventilated bottle. ;)