Fukushima insects tested for cognition
news.cnrs.fr
news.cnrs.fr
[0]: https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Rachni
[1]: origins have to start somewhere
I think you're making an interesting point, but I think you're attempting to point to a hive mind like it's the only pertinent topic when it comes to cognition of bees, as if testing for cognitive capabilities of individuals was a misunderstanding. But it's not a misunderstanding, it's part of what I think is some pretty explosively important research testifying to insect, cognition and even consciousness. At least speaking for myself, if the research holds, for me it necessitates a mind-blowing reevaluation of the internal lives of at least some insects.
I'm not at all. I only responded to the questions "is a hive mind a thing, had anyone even studied that?" which is a Yes, and "why would they study the hive mind, isn't studying the individual enough?" for which I gave one potential reason to do so. I never suggested that studying the individuals was insufficient or that I took any issue with the study as it was conducted, I only answered these questions.
> Crowds of people, as an average, are more accurate at guessing the number of beans in a jar at a county fair than individual people, but not because there's such a thing as cognition manifesting at the group level in any literal sense.
Sure but if someone asked you "is there any point in studying group dynamics when you could just study individuals" you could still give a good argument for it right?
> The protocol used at Fukushima is automated. Each bee is equipped with a 2-mm-wide QR Code which is read by a camera, activating the opening of the maze.
But yeah, doesn't look like a QR code at all, are there possibly different variations of QR codes? Haven't heard about that myself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode
Haven't seen one in ages.
> As users sweep their environment with a smartphone, audio cues allow them to find and center the tag in the phone’s field of view. A shake of the wrist prompts the details contained within the tag to be read out (visually impaired people are often holding a guide dog or cane with their other hand). https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/135057/these-col...
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appclip/creating-a...
It’s an old Microsoft standard. I’m pretty sure that MS rolled it up, years ago, so they may not be valid, anymore.
That's actually a fact; there are specific bloodlines prone to cancers.
Anyway, animals in islands without predators lose escape hability, in particular the dodo.
Although the results of the study have yet to be published, scientists are already reporting a decline in insect cognition in the contaminated area of Fukushima Prefecture. "We can see correlations," Armant says. "However, a causal link with radioactive contamination has not yet been established. But since the area is no longer inhabited, it is unlikely that the effect is due to factors such as pesticides."
So, when people leave the area, insect cognition decline, therefore human presence improves cognition in insects.
Did a nap at around 2 to 3PM on a sunny day, had the balcony door tilted inwards.
Got woken up by a strange, and rather loud buzzing sound, maybe like when you're holding a strip of paper, or soft plastic into a ventilator/fan.
Searched and saw nothing at first, until I saw movement behind the lowered window blinds.
Pulled them back and made that hornet bouncing against the glass, like panicked.
Put them back very slowly, raised the blinds of the balcony door and opened it wide.
Tried to shoo the hornet towards the now wide opened balcony door by slowly pulling the blinds back wide. Didn't work. It just bounced against the glass even more panicked.
Put the blinds back very slowly again.
I somehow got the idea that I maybe should give her something to eat.
But what? Honey on a spoon? Sugar dissolved in water? For whichever reason I decided to pick a raisin out of my müsli-box, and put that on the top of a long needle.
Don't ask me why. I never did that before, I just came to me. I can't explain how.
Anyway, I held the needle, maybe 10cm long, glinting silvery, very slowly and steady between the gap of blinds and windowframe, and the hornet crawled towards the tip on the inside of the blinds, tilted by 90°, like crawling on a wall.
And it began to gnaw on the raisin! I could see it shrink, took maybe 5 minutes until it was gone. Pulled the now empty needle back very slowly, and waited.
Hornet did something like 'aerobics', a strange dance, while still sitting rotated by 90° on the inside of the blinds, raising one of her legs at a time, grooming herself, and its wings. But rhythmically, several times.
For maybe two minutes.
Then, without bumping into anything, it flew out of the gap, and made two slow circles of maybe half a meter in diameter, maybe half a meter away from the tip of my nose, or my eyes, counterclockwise.
Absolutely coordinated. No variation in speed, and the circles like being drawn with a pair of compasses.
For maybe half a minute, max.
I stood very, very still.
And then it buzzed out very fast through the wide opened balcony door, in a straight line, out of sight.
I stood there, wondering, did that really happen? Am I still dreaming?
WTF?!
That was one of the stranger things happening in my life.
Unforgettable :-)
Anyway, there were no other Hornets in sight, and I got no other visits, or a nest.
Phew! Lucky me! :-)
Thinking about it, I remember sitting outside an Ice cream parlor with friends, having had a bowl of amarena cherry ice. A Wasp flew into it, and almost drowned in the molten residue at the bottom, and couldn't escape the steep and smooth glass walls. I slowly put a spoon into it, to give her a 'ladder'. That worked somehow, but not instantly.
She stayed on the spoon for while, also doing that selfgrooming thing, then lifted off rather uncoordinated, almost crashing into an ashtray, making miniature tornadoes there for a few seconds :-)
Then flying away finally. Also got no 'follow ups', for maybe 15 to 20 minutes, after which we left.
Maybe too exhausted to do that dance-thing, at home?
I'm not sure why but this sentence feels vaguely menacing.
"Fukushima was a massive disaster. It was also Arthur Buzzby's origin story."