Flower power
Electric field around flowers may help bees find nutritious blooms.
Flowers maintain small electric fields around them. Bees can not only detect those fields, but they may also tell the insects which blooms are most likely to offer a nectar reward, a team of scientists recently reported.
Flowers growing in the ground have a natural negative electric charge, notes Daniel Robert. He’s a sensory biologist at the University of Bristol in England who worked on the new study. Their blooms conduct electrons — the particles that carry negative charge — from the air to the ground. Throughout the air, positive electric charges abound, he explains. So bees, as they buzz about, can become positively charged…..
Electric field around flowers may help bees find nutritious blooms.
Flowers maintain small electric fields around them. Bees can not only detect those fields, but they may also tell the insects which blooms are most likely to offer a nectar reward, a team of scientists recently reported.
Flowers growing in the ground have a natural negative electric charge, notes Daniel Robert. He’s a sensory biologist at the University of Bristol in England who worked on the new study. Their blooms conduct electrons — the particles that carry negative charge — from the air to the ground. Throughout the air, positive electric charges abound, he explains. So bees, as they buzz about, can become positively charged…..