Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects

Post by verisimi » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 1:14 PM UTC

ilt wrote: post #20

sitkack wrote: post #4

We are learning so many wonderful things about Bees! They can count https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21222227 Bees play https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33369572 https://www.science.org/content/article/are-these-bumble-bee... All of this reinforces my belief that nearly everything is conscious and aware, we differ in a capabilities and resolution but we are all more similar than we are different. Spider Cogni…

Consciousness is a spectrum.

Post by fullstop » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 1:18 PM UTC

johnisgood wrote: post #13

baxtr wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am no expert at all in this topic! So please take this with a grain of salt. I just have the feeling (maybe wrongly) that the love and focus for bees is having detrimental/ unwanted effects on the ecosystem. Here some more articles / discussions: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44505552 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44792207 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35668879

My love for bees is more about their behavior (similar to how I find ants fascinating), and their "products" that is honey, propolis, beeswax, and so on. I am simply fascinated by their behaviors, and propolis is very healthy!

Post by kznewman » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #10

sitkack wrote: post #4

We are learning so many wonderful things about Bees! They can count https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21222227 Bees play https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33369572 https://www.science.org/content/article/are-these-bumble-bee... All of this reinforces my belief that nearly everything is conscious and aware, we differ in a capabilities and resolution but we are all more similar than we are different. Spider Cogni…

Growing up on a farm taught me that animals are absolutely able to think and learn. Not in the same way as humans, but I'm fully convinced there are degrees of consciousness. Watching new calves play in spring meadows is one of the most purely joyful things you can ever see. They have best friends and will avoid playing with other calves until their friend comes to play with them.

Post by MangoToupe » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

testfrequency wrote: post #8

sitkack wrote: post #4

We are learning so many wonderful things about Bees! They can count https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21222227 Bees play https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33369572 https://www.science.org/content/article/are-these-bumble-bee... All of this reinforces my belief that nearly everything is conscious and aware, we differ in a capabilities and resolution but we are all more similar than we are different. Spider Cogni…

I promise this isn’t a trap, it’s just my curiosity as a “flexitarian”. What (mostly) keeps me from eating animals is my mind wandering sometimes when making a protein choice about how they ended up there, wherever I am, not by choice. Are you vegan?

Post by bijant » Fri, Nov 21, 2025, 2:11 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #9

johnisgood wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love bees and ants, but I love bees the most. I would recommend people to study the behavior of bees and ants. Additionally, honey, propolis, etc. are super healthy, and we can thank bees for that.

Not that I want to curb your enthusiasm for bees, but… I recently read that honey bees in particular get the most attention from humans lately, so they are kept in high numbers. This has some adversarial effect on other pollinators, which hurts ecosystems more than it helps.