Dear friends, Interesting article I found in Yahoo..thought of sharing it.. Person changing jobs at mid-life might wish for a redesigned brain up to the fresh task. Honeybees go through just such a metamorphosis, a new study finds. Female worker bees begin adult life working in the hive, doing such things as taking care of the baby bees. By around 2-3 weeks of age, however - roughly equivalent to middle age in human years -they make a major career change, switching to foraging for nectar and pollen. :thumbsup Anyway, foraging requires new skills. A middle-age bee must now navigate to and from feeding sites and communicate the location of food to other bees (sometimes with a fantastic waggle). And she becomes a frequent flier, racking up hundreds of miles in the remainder of her short life. The brains of nurse bees have higher levels of proteins involved in caste determination in the complex society of these insects. The brains of experienced foragers, on the other hand, have more proteins linked to other vital activities, such as energy production. Their proteomes (the set of proteins expressed by their genes) are quite different, the scientists conclude. Wish to have such morphing process in our brain too! sriniketan
Hi Srini, As Usha said, now we know the origin of the saying "as busy as a bee" ! What remarkable co-ordination of activities the Bee's social set up has evolved and the composition of their brain structure is another marvel from Mother Nature. Interesting facts.Thanks for sharing.
Sorry for coming in late to respond to your fbs...you know I cannot excuse myself calling me as 'busy bee'..maybe as a "late Kate"..Big Laugh Gowri, Usha, Padmini ma'am, and Paulina, Thanks a lot for peeping into the busy life of bees.. it is true one can only marvel the work of Mother Nature. I think we also change during the mid-life crisis..remember the proverb..'Naarpadhu vayadhil naai gunam..>Big Laughjust kidding.. sriniketan
