Tautz Jurgen - The Buzz About Bees Biology Of A Superorganism - Hardcover

Binding: Hardcover
Description: Tis book already translated into ten languages may at frst sight appear to be just about honeybees and their biology. It c - tains however a number of deeper messages related to some of the most basic and important principles of modern biology. Te bees are merely the actors that take us into the realm of phys - ology genetics reproduction biophysics and learning and that introduce us to the principles of natural selection underlying the evolution of simple to complex life forms. Te book destroys the cute notion of bees as anthropomorphic icons of busy self - sacr - i fcing individuals and presents us with the reality of the colony as an integrated and independent being a superorganism with its own almost eerie emergent group intelligence. We are's - prised to learn that no single bee from queen through drone to sterile worker has the oversight or control over the colony. - stead through a network of integrated control systems and fee - backs and communication between individuals the colony - rives at consensus decisions from the bottom up through a type of swarm intelligence . Indeed there are remarkable parallels between the functional organization of a swarming honeybee colony and vertebrate brains.
Title: The Buzz About Bees Biology Of A Superorganism
Author(s): Tautz Jurgen
Publisher: Springer - Verlag Berlin And Heidelberg Gmbh & Co. Kg
Barcode: 9783540787273
Pages: 284 Pages, Xiv, 284 P.
Publication Date: 5/21/2008
Category: Insects (Entomology)