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The article explores the advanced cognitive abilities of bumblebees. It describes the abilities bees need given the environment they live such as abilities in how good they make nectar and pollen, determine the time for lowers to replenish their nectar, take the concept of sameness and difference, and learn about flowers based on nectar rewards. Resuls of a study are presented on the ability of bees to learn associations between the color of parts of the flower and pollen.

The article reports that according to a study foraging bumblebees display handedness and tend to rotate in the same direction on successive inflorescences. It mentions that bees to fly together through a tunnel to get to a sucrose solution, much like how you have to negotiate a hotel corridor to get to the soda machine. It states that distribution of sidedness may help a colony fly efficiently through dense foliage.

The article discusses a study by Olli Loukola and colleagues in which bumblebees learned to push a ball into a hole in order to receive a snack from observing a researcher doing this using a plastic bee on a stick, and the bees' ability to improve on what they learned by choosing the ball closest to the hole.

The article focuses on behavior research in bumblebees, commenting that bumblebees that were rewarded with sugar water after associating a location in the lab with a specific color that were rewarded before the test would investigate new areas more quickly than control bees, and talks about the role of dopamine receptors in reward systems.

The article discusses the Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT) company's development of an organic pesticide powder for bumblebees to spread to flowers during their pollination, offering the chief executive officer (CEO) of BVT Michael Collinson's perspective on the pesticide powder.

The article discusses a report published in "Science" by researcher Daniel Robert and team on the use of electrical signals for communication by Bombus terrestris bumblebees. They found that bumblebees were able to detect electric fields produced by negatively-charged flowers to attract pollinators. The flower field is altered after a visit by a bumblebee, signalling to other bees that the flower's nectar is depleted.

Refers to research found in various medical or scientific journals in August and September 2005. Report that bumblebees seeing fellow foragers on certain flowers were twice as likely to forage on those flowers; Report that the earth's core appears to be rotating faster than the rest of the planet; Report that the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers reduces the incidence of gastrointestinal infections by 59 percent; Impact of asteroids on local weather.

Reports on the study of the behavior of bumblebee colonies conducted by zoologists Jacqueline Shykoff and Christine Muller. Worker bees' control of the colony's means of production; Main ways in which a bumblebee could assess whether her workforce is large enough to begin breeding; Ability of worker bees to distinguish between different kinds of eggs.

Reports on the findings of entomologists Regula Schmid-Hempel and Christine Muller on the effect of parasitic fly on bumble bee behavior. Claim of the entomologists that bees with parasites tend to spent less time in the nest and more time foraging for food; Possible reasons why the parasitized bees does not come back to the nest; Implications of the study on foraging studies of insects.

The article focuses on the research study focusing on the role of bees in crop production in the U.S. Topics discussed the decline of bee populations in the country due habitat loss, the use of insecticides, and climate change, and highlights the discovery of British researchers on how bees use their sense of smell when foraging.

The article offers wildlife news briefs related to the U.S. A study conducted at the University of Colorado-Boulder on adults who went for outdoor camping trip revealed that camping helps in resetting of the biological clocks of humans. Research conducted at San Francisco State University found that bumble bees provide important pollination services. Malte Andersson, a biologist at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, discusses how the rodent Norwegian lemming can react to threats.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including a feature of entries from the photography competition of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB), an interview with Sue Black, professor of forensic anatomy at the University of Dundee in Scotland, and an article on how the impressive cognition system of bumble bees enables them to find resources.

Focuses on bumblebees. Sound of a bumblebee; Flight of the queen bee; Description of a bumblebee.

The article focuses on research into the individuality of social insects. It states researchers Claire Florent and Ellouise Leadbeater researched how bumblebees gather nectar and studied what caused the bees to ignore social information and rely on their own knowledge. It mentions they simulated plant species blooms using artificial flowers with plant oils and sugary solutions and found bees avoided going to new flowers providing more nectar despite social information of other nectar sources.

Relates the efforts of biologist Bernd Heinrich to study the behavior of bumblebees. Examples of laboratory experiments conducted by Heinrich concerning bumblebees; Mission of Heinrich; Details of the insect-flower transaction, according to Heinrich.

The article looks at the behavior of bumblebees, discussing research reported in the journal "Behavior Ecology and Sociobiology" in 2013 on some bumblebees' practice of nectar robbery, or removing nectar from a flower through a hole in its side, with no pollination occurring. It discusses evidence that the behavior is learned rather than innate.

An interview with Willie Nelson, an American country music singer and author of "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die," is presented. He reflects on his childhood in the town of Abbott in Texas where he enjoyed bumblebee fights. He shares about why he smokes pot and why his first wife Martha beat him with a broomstick. He says that Frank Sinatra who opened for him in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1984, was his favorite singer. He also shares his views about starting the Farm Aid and being an avid golfer.

The article reports on research on bumblebees which suggests that the species Bombus terrestris uses spatial memory to determine the shortest route by which to visit each flower in an area once before returning to the nest.

The article offers news briefs about animals. Biologists at the University of Cambridge and the University of London, both in England, found that bumblebees prefer warmth in flowers. A bee can't fly unless its body temperature is at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, so landing on a warm flower would help it retain its body heat. Scientists working with the Save the Elephants foundation tracked 54 African elephants in northern Kenya with GPS-transmitter collars and found that the elephants avoided hills, as it requires much more energy for them to climb the hills than walking along flat ground. Researchers at the University College London in England discovered a cancer in dogs that is spread by the transmission of cancerous cells during sex.

The article discusses research into bumblebees. In a novel test of insect intelligence, researchers observed that bumblebees, which had spied on a worker bee from another colony feasting on unusual flowers, later tended to visit flowers of the same color. This talent amounts to social learning, which is picking up a new behavior from observations of another animal, say the test's designers, Bradley D. Worden and Daniel R. Papaj of the University of Arizona in Tucson. In that other study, reported in the June 21 Current Biology, Lars Chittka and Ellouise Leadbeater of Queen Mary University of London describe a simple form of bee eavesdropping.

Reports research which showed that bumblebees can navigate outside their nests in the dark. Research by Thomas et al in the January 7, 1999, `Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B'; Bees walking to their destinations; Use of odor and a magnetic compass to navigate; Peak times for bee travel.

Looks at the Amazonian bumblebee and why it walks on the ground when it can fly. Results from a study in the Peruvian rain forest; Details about the bees' nests on the ground.

Discusses the findings of entomologists Sydney A. Cameron and James B. Whitfield concerning the trekking habits of nest-building bumblebees in the Tambopata Nature Reserve in southeastern Peru. Clearance of small trails used as pathways for leaf collecting; Plans to investigate whether bumblebees mark trails with scent.