Creatures in Colonies

The Naked Scientists Podcast

Dr Chris Smith

Science Radio, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Science, Medicine, Life Sciences, Technology, Health & Fitness, Naked Scientists

4.6 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2010

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The science of social species goes under the microscope this week. We hear what radio-tagging individual ants is revealing about the way they organise their nests to decide who goes hunting and who stays at home. Meera explores the growth of urban apiculture, including why city-made honey tastes superior to its countryside equivalent, we find out how bees encountering hostility use a stop signal to deter their fellow foragers from befalling the same fate, and in Kitchen Science we explore the physics of flight to see how bees stay airborne. Plus why not cleaning your teeth could cause a heart... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Transcript

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0:00.0	Boldly going where no science show has gone before.
0:06.0	The Naked Scientists.
0:11.0	This week, why not brushing your teeth twice a day could cause a heart attack, not just
0:16.2	for a dentist for you personally, and we'll find out why.
0:19.5	Also a new discovery reveals when early humans first issued a vegetarian lifestyle in favour of
0:24.5	meat and fish instead they got a bigger brain out of it so that was important and also
0:28.7	how the humble mongoose has shown scientists that animals can teach each other
0:32.3	tricks, traits and traditions.
0:34.6	That's all on the way.
0:35.6	Hello, welcome to this week's naked scientists.
0:37.5	I'm Chris Smith and also here is Helen Scales, Helen.
0:40.3	Hi Chris, well also this week we're looking at the world of bees and ants.
0:44.8	We'll hear how researchers have put radio tags on ants, those tiny, tiny creatures to find out where
0:50.1	they go and how they organize their colonies.
0:52.5	Find out how they do that a little bit later.
0:54.5	We'll also hear how bees are nature's stars of health and safety.
0:58.6	Researchers in California have discovered how they risk assess their journeys when they go out of the hive.
1:04.0	And in this week's kitchen science Ben and Dave turn their attention to the age-old claim
1:08.0	that bees really shouldn't be able to fly at all.
1:11.0	But of course they can, stay tuned to find out how they do it.
1:14.0	Helen, thank you very much. And of course if you would like to get in touch with us here
1:18.0	at the naked scientist, it's Chris at the naked scientist.com by email or you can send us the tweet on Twitter
	...

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