UNCOVERED: Lars chittka - The Untold Story

Do Insects Feel Pain? What Neuroscience Reveals About Insect Sentience and Animal Suffering

The nervous system that wasn't supposed to matterA fruit fly injected with a small dose of acid will drag the affected limb, avoid using it, and protect it from further contact. That behaviour has a name in biology: nociception. It is the detection of damaging stimuli by specialised sensory neurons,…

Times Life · Aug 17

Bumblebee Social Learning: How Insects Solved a Puzzle and Taught Other Bees Without Any Instruction

What the experiment actually testedA bumblebee given a two-step puzzle box, one that required rotating a red tab before a second disc could be pushed aside to reach a sugar reward, had no prior experience with either step. Given enough time alone, most bees failed. Bees that watched a trained…

Times Life · Aug 16

‘They surprise me every time’: bees can use tools to solve problems, study finds

Insects join list of species capable of solving simple ‘box-and-banana’ problem that demonstrates basic intelligence

The Guardian - UK · Jun 4

If bumblebees can play, does it mean they have feelings? This study suggests yes

Scientists wanted to learn whether bees, like humans and other mammals, had any interest in playing for fun's sake. They say they have evidence that bees do, and that could change how we view insects.

WEKU · Nov 5, 2022

Bumble bees enjoy playing ball games like humans and dogs, according to scientists

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have observed the insects playing with inanimate objects for fun

Manchester Evening News · Oct 27, 2022

Bumblebees get a buzz out of playing with balls, study finds

Research shows bees rolling wooden balls despite having no apparent incentive to do so

The Guardian - UK · Oct 27, 2022

Bumble bees ‘play with balls for enjoyment’

Findings add to growing evidence that bees’ minds are much more complex than previously imagined, scientists said.

The Independent UK · Oct 27, 2022

What constitutes a mind? Lars Chittka challenges our perception of sentience with the smallest of creatures

At the beginning of my research career around 15 years ago, any suggestion that a bee, or any invertebrate, had a mind of its own or that it could experience the world in an intricate and multifaceted way would be met with ridicule. As Lars Chittka points out in the…

The Conversation · Sep 19, 2022

‘Bees are really highly intelligent’: the insect IQ tests causing a buzz among scientists

We all know these busy insects are good for crops and biodiversity, but proof is emerging that they are also clever, sentient and unique beings

The Guardian - UK · Jul 16, 2022