Biologist discovers ‘stop’ signal in honey bee communication

A biologist at UC San Diego has discovered that honey bees warn their nest mates about dangers they encounter while feeding with a special signal that’s akin to a “stop” sign for bees.

The discovery, detailed in a paper in the February 23 issue of the journal Current Biology, which appears online today, resulted from a series of experiments on honey bees foraging for food that were attacked by competitors from nearby colonies fighting for food at an experimental feeder. The bees that were attacked then produced a specific signal to stop nest mates who were recruiting others for this dangerous location. Honey bees use a waggle dance to communicate the location of food and other resources. Attacked bees directed “stop” signals at nest mates waggle dancing for the dangerous location.

James Nieh, an associate professor of biology at UCSD who conducted the experiments, said this peculiar signal in bee communication was known previously by scientists to reduce waggle dancing and recruitment to food, but until now no one had firmly established a “clear natural trigger” for that behavior.

The stop sign is a brief vibrating signal made by the bee that lasts for about a tenth of a second with the bee vibrating at about 380 times a second. “It is frequently delivered by a sender butting her head into a recipient, although the sender may also climb on top of the receiver,” Nieh said.

Bee researchers originally called it a “begging call,” because they believed the signaling bee made it to obtain a food sample from the receiver.

But Nieh discovered in his experiments that one trigger for this signal—which caused the waggle dancers to stop and leave the nest—was attacks from bee competitors and simulated predators. The more dangerous the predator or competitor, he found, the more the stop signals bees produced to stop other bees from recruiting to that location. …

via Biologist discovers ‘stop’ signal in honey bee communication.

File all your complaints here

The world and this cough are kicking my ass. I’m having a funky February. I’ve tried looking on the bright side, now I’m going to try something new:  I need to file some complaints.

I’m at about three weeks of coughing, had to move while sick with one day to find a new place and one day to move, movers broke my desk, unexplainable red spots on my hands that disappear in three days, x-rays, blood tests, inhalers, way behind at work, friends all busy, not ready for Valentine’s day, got obliterated time after time tonight by some chess master on the other end of my iPhone, can’t acquire absolute pitch no matter how hard I work at it, need to crack EFS encryption on XP to get files back, having to sleep on a floor, back hurts from that, new place was 60 degrees last night, woke with a sore throat, temporarilylost an awesome little weekend side job I’ve loved for years, distracting loud high pitched ringing in both ears from auditory nerve damage, and not being able to run or work out for three weeks losing the most fitness progress I’ve had in years.

Yes, I realize this is all nothing. Some people in this world are starving to death. Others are being kept as slaves. There is torture, rape, war, and some people are probably trapped in the bodies of mice trying desparely to communicate with the scientists conducting genetic experiments that created them.

But Jesus, this feeling of having liquid in my lungs that I can NOT cough out is horrible. Anyone else out there sick with a seemingly eternal cough?

It would be great if this blog entry was a place you could leave your gripes and then they would leave you. What is your biggest complaint right now? What do you want to leave?

Update:

This magic complaint box actually worked. I woke up in a good mood. Sometimes you just need to get things off your chest and put them somewhere. Sleep helps too. Cough is a little better. Plus, I’ve almost completed a big project at work during all of this with limited time and under deadline pressure.

Jorge & others: Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy reading your comments each day at least as much as you enjoy reading the posts here.

Is complaining good for you?

Only if your complaining process gives you a better perspective. One study says complaining can make you feel worse:

… Voicing your frustrations is a natural way of dealing with them — but watch out for when a conversation dissolves into a bitch session. Talking your problems to death can make you feel even worse.A recent study found that teenage girls who vented to each other about their problems, from boy trouble to social slights, were more likely to develop depression and anxiety — and the same is likely true for adult women, says Amanda Rose, the author of the study. …

I’m typically mild mannered, curious, logical and Zen about problems… but when my “buttons get pushed” I also have a fighting side, a passionate, angry Italian personality that believes that if don’t get pissed off, you get pissed on.  That side of me thinks that the church that set up acomplaintfreeworld.org is trying to make people dangerously docile and compliant.

If you make a vow of no complaints for 21-days, does that mean I can rob you the first day, lie to you the second, disrespect you the third, emotionally manipulate you on the fourth, threaten you on the fifth, … ? No! You have rights! Stick up for them. But remember that other people also have rights. Don’t walk on them.

Advice from Wise part of Self to Other Parts of Self:

Find the right balance. Rather than having no complaints, be mostly positive. When you do complain, talk to the right person(s), specifically, about real issues, offer solutions, stay somewhat detached and know when to let it go.

Yeah, that’s good advice and all, but… Friends are great and complaining to friends (aka “venting”) works wonders to help us get sympathy and social support. How much we  do this may depend on how we were raised. That “awww” sound we got as children  from our parents when something went wrong can be very comforting. It says: I understand how you feel. Don’t worry. I’m on your side. You are loved.