The Dancing Bees: Karl von Frisch and the Discovery of the Honeybee Language
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.78 (982 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 022652650X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 296 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-06-03 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A biography we should've had some time ago well done Perry Clark I finally know the answer to a trivia question more of us should know the answer to: Karl von Frisch. Herr Professor von Frisch was the German scientist that described how the “dance” that bees do when they come back with news of a new nectar or pollen source conveys the location of the goodies. Amongst other things, of course. And while “The Dancing Bees” is of great interest to us, the rest of von Frisch’s story, both scientific and human, is worth knowing, too. In her new book, Tania Munz entertainingly but factually, clearly, and succinctly, tells us von Frisch’s story.Tania Munz, previously . j a haverstick said It's all about me. No, really. I’ve been a hobbyist beekeeper all my life, read von Frische's books and a have a good library of entomology, esp. honeybees and the hymenoptera, including a dozen antiquarian bee books. My training was in philosophy and a special intersat in philosophy and history of science. Cherry on top, my family was from Bavaria, spoke German at home and I've studied a little on Nazi history and the aftermath.This is not a book for the bees are disappearing and I love them crowd. There are plenty of books on bee dancing which will suit them better. Muntz describes the process by which a scientist (ethologist) came to investi. A beautifully written, engaging biography "Dancing Bees" is a meticulously researched and elegantly written biography of Karl von Frisch, the Austrian ethologist and Nobel Prize winner who discovered how bees communicate to their hive mates the distance and direction of food sources. Dr. Tania Munz, whose descriptions of the first ingenious experiments through the interpretation of the honeybee's dance and beyond, shows an in-depth knowledge of her subject matter that in turn allows her to write in such a way that is understandable to the non scientist but at the same time fulfills the rigorous requirements expected from her peers. She tells von Frisch's story, a man deeme
In the 1940s, bee populations throughout Europe were facing the devastating effects of a plague (just as they are today), and because the bees were essential to the pollination of crops, von Frisch’s research was deemed critical to maintaining the food supply of a nation at war. But amid their buzzing, they are also great communicators—and unusual dancers. The bees, as von Frisch put it years later, saved his life. But it took von Frisch to determine that the bees’ dances communicated precise information about the distance and direction of food sources. The Dancing Bees will be welcomed by anyone seeking to better understand not only this chapter of the history of science but also the peculiar waggles of our garden visitors. . This first in-depth biography of von Frisch paints a complex and nua
Perhaps most fascinating is what Munz has uncovered about how von Frisch—declared a ‘Quarter Jew’ by the Nazis—was able to navigate a frightening political landscape in war-torn Germany, suffer the destruction of his Zoological Institute during the bombing of Munich, and still continue conducting experiments that revolutionized our thinking about animal communication. “The Dancing Bees will surely become a classic in the literature on the history of biology in the twentieth century. It is the definitive account of the intellectual development of Karl von Frisch and of his discoveries about the ability of honeybees