Floral Signs Go Electric: Bumblebees Find and Distinguish Electric Signals from Flowers

www.sciencedaily.com...

Feb. 21, 2013 — Flowers' methods of communicating are at least as sophisticated as any devised by an advertising agency, according to a new study, published Feb. 21 in Science Express by researchers from the University of Bristol. However, for any advertisement to be successful, it has to reach, and be perceived by, its target audience. The research shows for the first time that pollinators such as bumblebees are able to find and distinguish electric signals given out by flowers.

The other day I came across the documentary called "Resonance: Beings of Frequency." It delves into how the ElectroMagneticField on earth impacts all life, and touched on how bees and other insects as well as birds use EMF to navigate and to pollenate.

We've had massive bee die-offs, birds dropping out of the skies, many many species of butterfly now extinict...
yet some people deny that the EMF is affected enough by the "cellular grid" that now saturates EVERYTHING.

We can't just mess with the planet's innate system at will without expecting something ill to happen.. We NEED bees and birds, butterflies and flowers in order to survive; they are the primary pollenators of our plant life, which is the absolute foundation of the food chain.

By placing electrodes in the stems of petunias, the researchers showed that when a bee lands, the flower's potential changes and remains so for several minutes. Could this be a way by which flowers tell bees another bee has recently been visiting?

To their surprise, the researchers discovered that bumblebees can detect and distinguish between different floral electric fields.

Also, the researchers found that when bees were given a learning test, they were faster at learning the difference between two colours when electric signals were also available.

How then do bees detect electric fields? This is not yet known, although the researchers speculate that hairy bumblebees bristle up under the electrostatic force, just like one's hair in front of an old television screen.
The discovery of such electric detection has opened up a whole new understanding of insect perception and flower communication.

I was going to start a thread regarding that video, but the handy-dandy search engine showed me it'd been covered and summarily SHOT DOWN as woo woo nonsense. I don't believe it IS nonsense.

"The co-evolution between flowers and bees has a long and beneficial history, so perhaps it's not entirely surprising that we are still discovering today how remarkably sophisticated their communication is."

Humans are SO BLOODY ARROGANT. It's really sad. We're destroying the delicate balance on this lovely planet and in my opinion once humans are GONE the planet will repair itself, much like our bodies repair themselves while we sleep.

The earth itself is "alive", and ionization is part of what keeps us all alive and well. Recent science has also established that being in contact with the DIRT under our grass and between plants, against BARE SKIN, neutralizes the disease-causing free radicals that we absorb every day. That is a subject for another thread, but I am really concerned that our "wifi" culture is affecting the wildlife on which we depend.

Any thoughts?

Here's an additional "source" from NPR this morning:
Honey, It's Electric: Bees Sense Charge On Flowers

So, they designed an experiment — one described in this week's Science magazine. The researchers built a small arena full of fake flowers. Each flower was simple — a stalk with a small steel dish at the top. Half of the "flowers" held delicious sugar water. The other half held quinine, a substance that bees find bitter and disgusting.

When bumblebees explored this false flower patch, they moved around randomly. They chose to land on sweet flowers just about as often as bitter flowers.

But when the sweet flowers carried a small charge, the bees learned pretty quickly to choose the charged flowers. And when the electric charge was removed? They went back to their random foraging.

The bees had recognized the electric field, and had learned to use it to find sweet flowers. But that's not all.

"In the seconds just before the bee lands, there is electrical activity in the plant," Sutton says.

The plant's electric field is changed by the proximity of that positively charged bee. And once the bee leaves, the field stays changed for 100 seconds or so. That's long enough for the altered field to serve as a warning for the next bee that buzzes by. She won't stop to investigate a flower that's already been visited.

Very cool stuff!!

reply to post by wildtimes


Awesome thread!

Truly remarkable creatures.

reply to post by wildtimes


Excellent. You may be on to something.

F&S&

It's interesting that bumblebees may sense electric fields from plants. That documentary, on the other hand, is pure trash.

reply to post by wildtimes


This is interesting! Thank you.

My friend was telling me about some health programme that she watched that tested various vegetables for their iron content and found that vegetables traditionally known for their high iron content were considerably depleted by comparison to figures from 'X' years ago. I wonder if that is part of the problem here. As far as I am aware, the ability to extract minerals, including metals such as iron and copper are part of the genetic make up of plants, and I would presume that those metals and minerals are part of what creates the process of EMF generation...so if plants are either not extracting enough due to depleted soils, or because that ability is being bred out, then that may be why they are not attracting bees, or rather why bees are not seeing them. Other insects see flowers in terms of ultra violet light, so they are still able to be pollinated...but in terms of sexual selection, this may spell even further disaster for bees, with flowers 'choosing' instead to switch off the EMF function in preference for ultra violet based attraction as a more reliable source of procreation.

Golly!!!!!!!

reply to post by Bedlam

It's interesting that bumblebees may sense electric fields from plants. That documentary, on the other hand, is pure trash.

You were one of the ones on the thread I saw posted.....
you're a scientist, correct?

Forgetting the parts of the doc that condemn cell towers and phones, etc. ..... and just taking into account the fact that EMFs affect bees, birds, butterflies, etc.........
still trash? Why so dismissive?

reply to post by KilgoreTrout

Other insects see flowers in terms of ultra violet light, so they are still able to be pollinated...but in terms of sexual selection, this may spell even further disaster for bees, with flowers 'choosing' instead to switch off the EMF function in preference for ultra violet based attraction as a more reliable source of procreation.

How do you know this??
I'm worried about the bees.....my main concern is that if humanity continues with convenience, and disregards the effects of their progress on the things we need, we will destroy it all. Our children and the planet, inclusive.

Does it not deserve more attention and research?

reply to post by wildtimes


well, that explains some of the die off imo, the air is full of
elec signals from cell phones, to wifi, it's no wonder they are
dying at such a rapid pace.

People need to stop and think, if it can have effects on bees what
is it doing to us and the other animals of the planet.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by Bedlam

 

It's interesting that bumblebees may sense electric fields from plants. That documentary, on the other hand, is pure trash.

You were one of the ones on the thread I saw posted.....
you're a scientist, correct?

Forgetting the parts of the doc that condemn cell towers and phones, etc. ..... and just taking into account the fact that EMFs affect bees, birds, butterflies, etc.........
still trash? Why so dismissive?

You can't count the errors in that thing. I'm dismissive because it's drivel.

edit to add: You're likely not going to catch them, for the same reason you aren't seeing that your article discusses electric fields, not radio signals - they're not the same. "Documentaries" like that one sound nice, sciency, plausible, if you don't have the prerequisite knowledge to see the mistakes and lies.

reply to post by Bedlam

edit to add: You're likely not going to catch them, for the same reason you aren't seeing that your article discusses electric fields, not radio signals - they're not the same. "Documentaries" like that one sound nice, sciency, plausible, if you don't have the prerequisite knowledge to see the mistakes and lies.

"Catch" whom? The bees?
"My" article? It's from Science Daily and NPR! I don't claim to be a physicist or biologist; nor do I understand radio and EM frequencies - to me, it's all magic. But, so is the way the insects and birds (and flowers) "behave."

I don't have the 'prerequisite knowledge' of magnetic and radio fields, no. But...the fact is that bees are dying; deserting their hives; and birds are dropping out of the sky in 'clumps' (I'd say 'droves', but that implies cattle).

Why are you so hostile about this?
Might I ask?

Originally posted by wildtimes
"Catch" whom? The bees?

The makers of your documentary. It's a long shaggy dog story.

"My" article? It's from Science Daily and NPR!

It's the one you based the thread on, eh? Thus your article.

I don't have the 'prerequisite knowledge' of magnetic and radio fields, no. But...the fact is that bees are dying; deserting their hives; and birds are dropping out of the sky in 'clumps' (I'd say 'droves', but that implies cattle).

Why jump to the assumption that it's some sort of radio signal? Seems like a massive leap with not much of a net to support it. More likely it's neonicotinoids in the case of bees. And I'm not sure there are any more bird deaths than usual.

Why are you so hostile about this?
Might I ask?

Because I work for BIG BEE!! It must be, right?

Nope, I hate that documentary, because it deludes nice folks like YOU, and that's who it's targeted at.

reply to post by Bedlam

it deludes nice folks like YOU, and that's who it's targeted at.

Okay, well, trust me, I'd be MORE than happy to know that the bees won't all croak, the birds will be okay, and we will still have some semblance of nature's balance ..... before we destroy it all.

Fair enough.

But....Science Daily and NPR?
I'm sorry, it's hard for me to imagine dismissing those as crap sources. Yet again - I'm no scientist.....

That is interesting S&F. So the bees can sense the field of the flowers. A smell is actually a vibration of energy that is governed by the metals and chemicals it contains. Every plant takes in a unique set of minerals to form it's shape and color. I never realized that smell was actually an energy signature till reading this. What smelling really is is not really explained well. I'm going to study this more.

Originally posted by wildtimes
But....Science Daily and NPR?
I'm sorry, it's hard for me to imagine dismissing those as crap sources. Yet again - I'm no scientist.....

No one's saying anything about Science Daily or NPR.

Those articles discuss something that may be borne out, with more research.

However, it's got nothing to do with wi-fi, cell phones, dirt under toes or that documentary. Nothing in the article addresses any of this, even tangentially.

Originally posted by rickymouse
That is interesting S&F. So the bees can sense the field of the flowers. A smell is actually a vibration of energy that is governed by the metals and chemicals it contains. Every plant takes in a unique set of minerals to form it's shape and color. I never realized that smell was actually an energy signature till reading this. What smelling really is is not really explained well. I'm going to study this more.

Smells aren't energy signatures, they're chemicals. A smell isn't a vibration of energy. It's a shape.

reply to post by Bedlam

Those articles discuss something that may be borne out, with more research.

Okay. We're cool then.

Are you concerned about the effects that humans have on the planet's balance? What do you think is the level of disruption that 'we' humans can cause?

I was thinking bees posses an incredible memory, but this idea is more plausible. Nice work OP. If we could just figue out the astral jelly and the luminous worms.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Those articles discuss something that may be borne out, with more research.

Okay. We're cool then.

Are you concerned about the effects that humans have on the planet's balance? What do you think is the level of disruption that 'we' humans can cause?

How in the world would you go about quantifying something like that? First, you'd have to exactly define 'balance', and that'll take a few centuries...

reply to post by Speckle

the astral jelly and the luminous worms.

And the fish at the extreme depths of the ocean with the laser beams on their heads.....

anyway...what is 'astral jelly' ? and what are 'luminous worms' - you mean glow worms?
How about fireflies?? - pretty astounding, in my opinion.