Mystery “solved”: how honeybees fly

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="5">Mystery “solved”: how honeybees fly</font></p> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="1">July 2, 2005<br> Courtesy University of Michigan Health System<br> and World Science staff<br> </font> <b><font size="2" face="Arial"> <br> Scientists found decades ago that they couldn’t explain how bees fly. Simple math showed the feat was “impossible” given the small size of their wings, a pair of French researchers wrote in 1934.<br> <br> <p> Since then, the mystery has been partly solved, as researchers have determined that the quick flapping of the wings helps compensate for their small size. <br> <br> But while scientists now think they understand how most insects fly, some types of honeybees have remained puzzling until now, because their wingstrokes have still seemed too short to support flight.<br> <br> In a new study, researchers say they have solved that problem, too.<br> <br> Douglas L. Altshuler of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and colleagues found in a new study that these species compensate for short wingstrokes by beating their wings faster. This generates aerodynamic forces every time the wings change direction that create the requisite lift.<br> <br> The reason for this strategy is that it gives the bees more flexibility to carry heavier loads, the researchers said. When they do have to, they can generate a bigger wingstroke while keeping the frequency of the wingbeats the same, generating more power.<br> <br> This power range is vital for these social insects, which often have to transport heavy loads such as nectar or larvae over long distances, said the researchers, who published their results in this week’s early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. <p>Thus, they added, the findings go some way toward resolving a puzzle that for many people has symbolized the inadequacy of scientific analysis, and “ the hubris with which theoreticians analyze the natural<br> world.”</p> <p> <br> * * *</font> </b> </p> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <p><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/051128_beesfrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></b> </p> <p>  </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>