There are many animals in nature that don't get lost, and bees are excellent navigators, so why don't bees get lost? And what kind of scientific discoveries will it bring us?
The main reasons why bees don't get lost are the following:
1.Sun navigation: Bees use the position of the sun in the sky to determine direction. They perceive polarized light, i.e., light that vibrates only in a specific direction, through photoreceptor cells in the compound eye. This sensitivity to polarized light allows the bees to adjust their flight path according to changes in the position and time of day of the sun.
2.Landmark memory: Bees are able to remember landmark features along the way, such as terrain, vegetation, smells, etc., and use this as a reference to navigate.
3.Dance communication: When the worker bee finds the nectar source, it returns to the hive and performs a behavior known as the "swing dance" or "figure-of-eight dance", which tells its companion the direction and distance of the nectar source through the direction and speed of the dance, and its relationship to the position of the sun.
4.Olfactory navigation: Bees can also use their strong olfactory memory to identify and track volatile chemicals (pheromones) released by specific flower sources, so that they can pinpoint the same sea of flowers.
Bees don't get lost brings great discoveries and revelations to technology:
Biomimicry applications: Scientists are inspired by bee navigation systems to design drones, robots, and other autonomous navigation systems, such as developing technology that can use polarized light sensors for positioning and navigation.
Swarm intelligence research: The social behavior and communication methods of bees, especially the ability to transmit complex information through dance, have promoted the development of swarm intelligence algorithms in the field of artificial intelligence, which are used to solve problems such as distributed computing and path planning.
Biological navigation research: Studying how bees process and integrate multiple navigation cues (sight, smell, etc.) can help humans understand more complex biological navigation mechanisms and may be applied to improve existing navigation techniques.
In summary, the excellent navigation ability of bees not only reveals the unique survival strategies of natural organisms to adapt to the environment, but also promotes the progress of human beings in navigation technology, robot design, and intelligent system development.