Good looks without substance don't fool honeybees either. "Floral scent is a cue heavily relied upon by bees to discriminate among some flowers," Wright explained. "When the floral scent isn't correct, even if the visual aspects of the flower are exactly the same, a bee will not visit it." She added that humans, like bees, also probably learn to associate particular smells with certain outcomes, such as when a woman detects a man's sweat. Charles Wysocki, a behavioral neuroscientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center, recently tried, and mostly failed, to prevent women from detecting male sweat by masking the masculine odor with various other fragrances. Like honeybees, the women, who use sweat odor as a tool for evaluating potential mates, weren't easily fooled. "It is quite difficult to block a woman's awareness of body odor," Wysocki concluded. Related Links: TreeHugger: White House Garden to Feature Bee Hive Discovery News Blog: Born Animal |
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