The Honey Bee

I received this book as a gift, one that I opened early because the person I received it from (a well-read scientist) has particularly good taste in books. And this book was no exception; well written, illustrated, and developed...it was over and done with in a couple of fine evenings. I was amazed at how engaging this book was, in itself a study of writing about the natural sciences. It is the story of the honey bee and Homo sapiens over the millennia, developed over the pages into a fascinating multi-dimensional picture of our evolving understanding of that important creature and of ourselves. That is, this is not a book parroting facts along an expected track and thesis. It is a book more about how we know what we know about honey bees through the questions asked by researchers and the ways they went about devising apparatus to answer those questions. It also well illustrated how science in general really works, in the defense of such conclusions in the reviewed journals as the course of science demands. Thus, it contains gems of problem development and solving, of data collection and logic, and of the surprising insight peer review can sometimes cast upon what looks like a done deal. Even more importantly, it shows how such peer inquiry can actually firm up a conclusion, and lead to even greater understanding. Its science, done up right, staring the remarkable honey bee. Five jars! (mmm...stars :))

Honey bees are among the most complex of the extant protostomes, and their behavior and central nervous system has been studied in some detail. This easy to read reference describes beekeeping, the life cycle of the bees and the bee hive, communication by pheromes, communication by sound, communication by the bee's 'dance language', navigation by a sun 'compass', navigation by a polarized light 'compass', navigation by landmarks, possible navigation by a magnetic 'compass', flower learning and memory, matching from memory, visual memory, and the possibility of limited insight in bees.

The authors, in laying out an engaging and thorough discussion of bees, their 'honey dance', and other elements of highly structured language, illuminate the broader question of how animals experience and learn. The folklore -- and wonderful pictures -- will make this book a pleasure for nature lovers, while students of language and of the scientific process will enjoy it for the window it provides into how classical experiments are used to probe cognition and learning. Despite the apparently narrow scope of the title, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys popular-press books on science: there's a lot of wonderful material here, and its not hard to get at and enjoy.