Bera bý

by Karl von Frisch, Jón O. Edwald (translator)

Í þessu riti fjallar austurríski líffræðingurinn Karl von Frisch um tilraunir sínar með hunangsbýflugur sem eru einar þær merkustu í dýrafræði 20. aldar, en von Frisch varð sá fyrsti til að skýra eitthvert athyglisverðasta fyrirbæri dýraríkisins, táknmál býflugna. Hann var á langri starfsævi sinni einna fremstur í flokki þeirra vísindamanna sem rannsaka atferli dýra og hlaut Nóbelsverðlaunin í læknisfræði fyrir rannsóknir sínar. Í þessari bók, sem byggð er á fyrirlestrum sem höfundur hélt við Cornellháskóla í Bandaríkjunum, segir hann frá tilraunum sínum á alþýðlegan hátt með það að leiðarljósi að kynna leikmönnum uppgötvanir sínar og þær aðferðir sem hann beitti við rannsóknina. Tilraunir hans eru hugvitssamlegar og einfaldar en þaulhugsaðar og uppgötvanir um hegðun og eðli flugnanna hrífandi.

Bókin skiptist í þrjá kafla og skýrir sá síðasti sem fyrr segir frá áttaskyni hunangsbýflugna og hinum sérkennilega dansi sem þær nota til að tjá staðsetningu fæðunnar. Í hinum köflunum fjallar von Frisch um rannsóknir sínar á efnaskyni flugnanna og litaskyni þeirra, en hann sýndi fram á að þær greina liti og skynja þar að auki útfjólublátt ljós. Hér veitir hann leikum innsýn í aðferðir og hugsunarhátt vísindamannsins og víkur að ýmsum viðfangsefnum vistfræðinnar. Vísindamenn deildu hart um það hvort flugurnar tjáðu sig virkilega með eins nákvæmum og skýrum hætti og von Frisch taldi, og fannst ýmsum kenning hans eigna dýrum um of mannlega eiginleika, en þó fór svo að þær fengust að lokum staðfestar með óyggjandi hætti. Niðurstöðurnar eru stórmerkt umhugsunarefni hverjum þeim sem hefur áhuga á atferli dýra og þeirri spurningu að hvaða marki þau eru gædd hugsun og sálarlífi.

Í forspjalli sínu fjallar Örnólfur Thorlacius um feril von Frisch, uppgötvanir hans og atferli býflugna almennt.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Karl Ritter von Frisch (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was an Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz.

His work centered on investigations of the sensory perceptions of the honey bee and he was one of the first to translate the meaning of the waggle dance. His theory was disputed by other scientists and greeted with skepticism at the time. Only recently was it definitively proved to be an accurate theoretical analysis.

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll read anything about Bees and so I picked this one up from my local library. My review really shouldn't influence anyone. I gave it three stars largely because I had push through most of the explanations of scientific experiments.

This book is of TREMENDOUS value to any and all readers who study bees or raise them, it's just not written for a layman, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Books like this contribute knowledge of an important animal and as such should be read.

I only gave it three stars because I'm weak when it comes to applied sciences. This book is a gem.

[Jim Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it 20 years ago, when I was studying animal behavior in college. It was a summer read, just for fun. Like a lot of very smart authors, he has a gift for making his expertise easy to understand. This book is getting old, but this guy was known as the world's greatest scholar on bees. He got a Nobel prize in 1973, and bees was his specialization. I remember loving his ideas on bee vision (they see polarized light, the changes in light when it reflects off the air, which humans see with filters, and this helps them remember directions), and most interesting was his work on the "waggle dance" (bees dance in a figure eight pattern, and the angle of the dance tells other bees where the food is, and there are issues with the amount of wiggling around or something, that tells them how far away).

I read a dozen books like this over the summers and this was well above average. Even if you don't read much stuff by science people or naturalists (he is both) this one is short and beautifully done. And bees are just cool and fun animals to know about.

[Peachy Keen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fascinating little book about bees. He focuses on their color vision, their sense of smell, and their dances that tell other bees where to go to find a good source of nectar/pollen. He doesn't actually defend the claim that the communication system constitutes language (and he would have a hard time doing so--see Millikan, 1984). It doesn't seem to be a strong, serious claim in other words--he's really just marveling at how sophisticated their communication is. It's not what we'd expect of familiar insects buzzing around in our gardens.

It is easy to read up until the part about polarized light. He's a little less clear in explaining that, but it's hard to use words and pictures for it I think. I found this video very helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXZOL...

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honey bee language and sensory organs. This book describes the test that proved honey bees can see color

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love bees 🐝❤️‍🔥

[Seth LaRue · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book, pithy, precise, conversational. Totally charming

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that sums up various lectures Von Frisch gave at universities in the USA. A lovely little book that gives insight into the way bees perceive the environment. He gets pretty specific about what they can see and sense and lists the various experiments he did to verify these findings. He also had a chapter on the way bees communicate to each other where food is. This was pretty interesting, and the way he tested for it seemed to prove his point well. A great book that gives one a peak at how bees are studied, especially if you were trying to create a study yourself!