00:00 It is fascinating to observe how rusty the burdens are.
00:04 Although their brain is the size of a tiny seed of pavos,
00:08 these little insects have an incredible intelligence.
00:12 Recently, researchers have discovered that bees have indesemotions propers and poor ant meme hatred with the sensations.
00:19 They can, for example, show signs of anxiety in stressful situations, like a predator attack.
00:25 They then show themselves cautious and indecisive, even avoiding perfectly sure flowers.
00:30 This tends to show that they could have similar feelings to what we call emotions.
00:35 They can also feel discomfort or pleasure.
00:39 Scientists have led bees to associate certain colors with rewards.
00:45 When these bees received a surprise, they seemed happier and more tenacious.
00:51 Isn't it the same for you? We also put these bees in situations where they had to choose between discomfort and a reward.
00:59 These insects have shown that they could weigh different options and make decisions based on their feelings.
01:05 This suggests that they could be bothered, just like us.
01:09 They can even exhibit complex emotions, such as optimism, frustration and spying.
01:15 And these are not the only surprises that these bees have reserved for us.
01:19 Bees are much more than just honey-producing pollinators.
01:23 There are more than 25,000 different species of bees in the world, each with its own unique way of life.
01:29 They live in a world of totally different sensations from ours.
01:33 They see, in particular, things in ultraviolet and polarized light.
01:38 They can even feel the fluctuations of magnetic and electric fields on the ground.
01:44 This helps them to determine which flowers have already been visited by other bees.
01:49 A big turnaround in bee evolution occurred much earlier, during the Jurassic period.
01:54 Their ancestors then decided to go from a nomadic life to a sedentary life in hives.
01:59 This change forced them to remember where their nest was, otherwise they would find themselves in difficulty.
02:06 Their brains therefore adapted, and certain regions became larger and more complex in order to manage all this new information.
02:13 And today, millions of years later, bees have become incredibly intelligent creatures.
02:19 And even able to solve mathematical puzzles.
02:22 Ah, if I had such friends in high school!
02:25 And yes, bees seem to understand the concepts of addition and subtraction.
02:30 Researchers have set up mathematical, special, letter-shaped labyrinths,
02:35 "I" so that bees can find their way around.
02:38 Instead of using numbers or symbols that bees cannot understand,
02:42 they used colors.
02:44 Blue meant "add 1" and yellow meant "subtract 1".
02:49 Bees had to choose the right path according to the colors they saw at the beginning of the labyrinth.
02:54 After a little training, during which bees made a hundred trips through these labyrinths,
03:00 they seemed to have taken the lead.
03:02 Then came the test.
03:04 These little insects have found the solution in most cases,
03:08 which is always better than if they had simply trusted chance.
03:12 This does not mean that bees will perform complex calculations in their heads, however.
03:17 But they could have malleable brains, able to learn new tasks,
03:22 even if they are not used to the natural state.
03:25 They also showed a certain understanding of the concept of zero.
03:29 Scientists then trained them to recognize the smallest of the two numbers.
03:34 They thus showed bees images with different numbers of shapes.
03:38 They rewarded them with sweet milk if they chose the image that included the coins.
03:44 But if they opted for the image with the most shapes, they received a taste of quinine.
03:50 Once the bees understood the principle,
03:52 researchers introduced a new option.
03:55 A blank image, without any shape.
03:58 And bees chose this blank image,
04:00 rather than images with two or three shapes, almost half the time.
04:04 This suggests that they understood that zero is less than two or three.
04:08 In more advanced experiments,
04:10 bees have shown that they could make the difference between one and zero.
04:14 This could help them keep predators or find food sources more efficiently.
04:20 And if bees can understand zero,
04:22 who knows how many other animals can do the same?
04:25 Not only bees can learn and remember new things,
04:29 but they can also teach them to each other, just like we do.
04:33 Scientists have set up a complex puzzle in a laboratory,
04:37 and trained beekeepers to solve it.
04:39 First, the beekeepers solve the puzzle.
04:42 Then, they teach their friends how to do it.
04:46 It turns out that humans are not the only ones able to transmit knowledge in this way.
04:51 In another experiment, bees received a puzzle to solve in several days.
04:56 Although they had a lot of time to solve it,
04:59 they could not do it without a little human assistance.
05:02 But once they saw the solution, they did not take long to understand.
05:07 It was also discovered that if a particularly bright bee belonged to the group,
05:12 its innovative ideas could last and shape their society for several generations.
05:17 In a curiously similar way to that of humans.
05:20 Even behaviors that we thought were purely instinctive,
05:23 like the famous honey dance, seem to be influenced by social learning.
05:28 Bees can even be trained to use tools,
05:31 a skill that we thought was reserved for some mammals and some birds.
05:36 A test was designed where bees had to move a small ball
05:39 to the center of a platform to obtain a sweet reward.
05:42 Bees do not do this kind of thing in the wild,
05:45 so that biologists had to teach them.
05:48 By using a plastic bee at the end of a stick,
05:51 researchers illustrated the task in front of the bees.
05:54 After a few days of training,
05:56 they began to push the ball to the center on their own.
05:59 And again, they showed other bees how to do it.
06:03 What is not insignificant,
06:05 is that they did not simply copy the technique blindly.
06:08 When they were faced with new situations,
06:11 they refined what they had already learned
06:14 and chose the most effective way to success.
06:17 For example, when they were given the choice between balls of different colors,
06:21 bees chose the one closest to the center,
06:24 even if they had been trained in different conditions.
06:27 This proves that bees do not just follow instructions.
06:31 They think and adapt to new challenges.
06:34 We tended to consider bees as a homogeneous workforce.
06:38 It is a huge collective consciousness,
06:41 where everyone serves their queen relentlessly.
06:44 But this conception is also questioned by new research.
06:48 It seems that bees have distinct personalities.
06:52 Thus, certain samples of entourage tend to be the most popular with the press of the Rocher.
06:58 A small percentage of bees, called "lighters",
07:01 show a certain interest in strong sensations,
07:04 seeking new locations for the colony.
07:07 These bold lighters are not only more likely to search or build new nests,
07:13 but also to participate in food research.
07:16 And there is a huge difference in the genetic activity of lighters bees' brains
07:21 compared to their worker counterparts.
07:23 The lighters bees' brains have shown increased activity in the reward system.
07:28 This is where their enthusiasm for new experiences comes from.
07:32 It is also very similar to the attraction for novelty
07:35 that we find in humans and other animals.
07:38 Sometimes, their personality is even shaped by their memories and past experiences.
07:42 Some bees would even show signs of post-traumatic stress.
07:47 Thus, in the hive, bees choose their tasks according to their personality traits.
07:52 They can also be trained to detect any smell.
07:56 They are extremely sensitive to volatile substances.
07:59 And thanks to this, they can even detect diseases.
08:02 Bees have been trained to associate the smell of infected samples
08:06 with a reward in sweet water.
08:08 After a repeated exposition, bees have quickly learned to extend their tongues
08:13 in response to this one smell, without needing any reward.
08:17 Thanks to this, they were able to detect infected samples in a few seconds.
08:23 This worked with samples of visons and humans.
08:26 The experiment showed very promising results
08:29 in the distinction between healthy and infected samples.
08:33 Now, we are trying to implement this innovative approach
08:36 and develop prototypes of machines
08:39 capable of automatically training several bees simultaneously.
08:43 This technology has the potential to serve as an effective diagnostic system,
08:48 especially in low-income countries.
08:51 And bees can accomplish many other things.
08:54 They can learn while they sleep,
08:56 which means they are able to dream and see in a dream
09:00 the things they saw during the day.
09:02 They can also remember human faces.
09:04 They remember the unique characteristics
09:07 and can recognize them over repeated interactions.
09:10 In a study, scientists associated human faces with sweet water
09:15 and discovered that bees recognized and remembered faces associated with the reward,
09:21 even without it.
09:23 This also helps them to recognize each other
09:26 and to return to flowers that produce more pollen.
09:30 So, what does all this mean for us?
09:33 If it is true that bees really feel emotions
09:37 and have a certain form of consciousness,
09:39 this radically changes the way we should consider them.
09:43 They are already a threatened species.
09:45 And maybe, now, we should treat them with much more care.
09:49 So be very careful with our friends bees.
09:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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