Honeybee Democracy (eBook)

Thomas D. Seeley (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2010
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-3595-9 (ISBN)

Infos

How honeybees make collective decisions-and what we can learn from this amazing democratic processHoneybees make decisions collectively-and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. In fact, as world-renowned animal behaviorist Thomas Seeley reveals, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making. A remarkable and richly illustrated account of scientific discovery, Honeybee Democracy brings together, for the first time, decades of Seeley's pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees.In the late spring and early summer, as a bee colony becomes overcrowded, a third of the hive stays behind and rears a new queen, while a swarm of thousands departs with the old queen to produce a daughter colony. Seeley describes how these bees evaluate potential nest sites, advertise their discoveries to one another, engage in open deliberation, choose a final site, and navigate together-as a swirling cloud of bees-to their new home. Seeley investigates how evolution has honed the decision-making methods of honeybees over millions of years, and he considers similarities between the ways that bee swarms and primate brains process information. He concludes that what works well for bees can also work well for people: any decision-making group should consist of individuals with shared interests and mutual respect, a leader's influence should be minimized, debate should be relied upon, diverse solutions should be sought, and the majority should be counted on for a dependable resolution.An impressive exploration of animal behavior, Honeybee Democracy shows that decision-making groups, whether honeybee or human, can be smarter than even the smartest individuals in them.

Autor

Thomas D. Seeley is professor of biology at Cornell University and a passionate beekeeper. He is the author of The Wisdom of the Hive and Honeybee Ecology (Princeton).

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.9.2010
• Zusatzinfo: 30 color illus. 30 halftones. 26 line illus. 1 table.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Planung / Organisation
• Schlagworte: Abdomen • Action potential • Africanized bee • ant colony • Apis cerana • Apis dorsata • Apis florea • BEE • Beehive • beekeeper • Beekeeping • beeswax • Bee tree • biologist • brood comb • Brood (honey bee) • Carnegie Mellon University • collective intelligence • Collective Motion • Conceptual Framework • Cornell University • Decision-Making • defecation • Deliberation • Dennis Flanagan • douglas hofstadter • Drone (bee) • Egg cell • Entomology • Ethology • Eusociality • eye movement • foraging • Frontal eye fields • Graduate school • Group decision-making • group intelligence • Henry David Thoreau • honey bee • Honey bee life cycle • Honey flow • Human Brain • Illustration • Information Cascade • insect • Integrator • Karl von Frisch • larva • Leafcutter ant • Levels of evidence • Martin Lindauer • Max Planck • Nasonov pheromone • National Science Foundation • Nectar source • nest box • neuroscientist • Nuptial flight • odor • optimal design • Paper wasp • Pheromone • Physiology • Piping • Plywood • Pollen • Pollination • positive feedback • Prediction • queen bee • quorum sensing • Reproductive success • royal jelly • Santa Fe Institute • Scale insect • Scientific American • Scouting • secret ballot • secretion • Sense • Sequential Probability Ratio Test • Shoals Marine Laboratory • Social and Decision Sciences (Carnegie Mellon University) • Social behavior • Spermatheca • Stimulation • Superorganism • Swarming (honey bee) • takeoff • Termite • Thermoregulation • Town meeting • Trade-off • undergraduate education • video camera • Visual Field • waggle dance • western honey bee • worker bee • yellow rain
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-3595-X / 140083595X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-3595-9 / 9781400835959