Do you know why bees lose their buzz?

Prof. Know Why answers for your general knowledge and awareness on: Do you know why bees lose their buzz?

Like humans, the insect world also experiences problem in performing their routine jobs, when sick. Bumblebees lose a bit of their buzz when ill, and like humans, have a tougher time doing daily tasks until they recover, according to British researchers who reported their findings in the Royal Society's journal, Biology Letters, last week.

Evolutionary biologist Eamonn Mallon of the University of Leicester, who believes his findings can boost the efforts in saving dwindling bee colonies, said Honeybees with activated immune systems also have memory problems. He said that bees live on their memory. And, "If even a minor infection hurts its memory that is a major cost."

Like humans, bees can get sick and recover in days from infections after the immune system kicks into action to fight off viruses or parasites, Mallon said.

The researchers divided bees into two groups and injected half with a substance that stimulated the immune system. They then offered the bees the choice of blue and yellow flowers but only one color contained sugar water.

Eventually all the bees spent their time feeding from the correct flower but it took the stimulated bees 10 percent longer to reach this point, showing that an active immune response when ill affects memory, the researchers said.

In the past 50 years different kind of bee species and their population have become sparse day by day throughout the world and several are under threat. Scientists believe, apart from the farming methods that have deprived bumblebees of many traditional flowering plant food sources, diseases may help explain the decline.

Well, this can lead to serious concern about both the decline in wild bumblebee species and the effects of disease on the honeybee industry, of course if you care to give your ears!

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Do you know why we need to sleep?

Prof. Know Why answers:

There are conflicting theories about the “purpose of sleep” – that is, why do we need to sleep? But the fact that we spend about eight hours asleep of every 24 hours, suggests that there are powerful evolutionary reasons for its continuing existence. Most theories center on the beneficial effects that sleep has on the brain. This is because; there is little evidence of any direct physiological effects on the body. Some scientists believe that sleep is a time for the immune system to regenerate, while one theory suggests that sleep evolved as a way of coping with limited supplies of food.

The dominant theory is that sleep is a time for the brain to store memory. The idea is that during sleep the brain, in effect, goes offline to file the events of the day. Another theory is that the brain is a complex organ that needs the downtime provided by sleep to recover from the stresses of waking hours. “While we are awake, the higher centers of the brain are working flat out,” says Professor Jim Horne, who runs the sleep laboratory at Loughborough University. “Even when you are lying down, the brain is in a state of quiet readiness, ready to respond. The only time it can rest is during sleep.”

Neuroscientists argue that at least one vital function of sleep is bound up with learning and memory. A cascade of new findings, in animals and humans, suggest that sleep plays a critical role in flagging and storing important memories, both intellectual and physical, and perhaps in seeing subtle connections that were invisible during waking.

In a study which was published last year, the participants were given an exercise to study pairs of Easter eggs on a computer screen and memorize a day later, how the computer has arranged them. The researchers at Harvard and McGill Universities, who conducted the study, reported that participants who slept after playing this game scored significantly higher on a retest than those who did not sleep. While asleep they apparently figured out what they didn’t while awake - the structure of the simple hierarchy that linked the pairs.

“We think what’s happening during sleep is that you open the aperture of memory and are able to see this bigger picture,” said the study’s senior author, Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist who is now at the University of California, Berkeley. He added that many such insights occur “only when you enter this wonder-world of sleep”.

Researchers, who champion these brain theories, point to the fact that behavior changes significantly with sleeplessness. A person who is lacking sleep takes more risks, has slower mental processes and reacts to events with more emotion and less logic. One theory is that brain circuitry needs to be repaired and maintained regularly and that when this maintenance work is not carried out during sleep, the workings go awry, with communications slowing down or being wrongly routed, if you don’t get enough sleep.

So, how much sleep do you need? Some researches suggest that while seven to eight hours a night is healthy, under five hours or more than eight is unhealthy, and linked to disorders such as heart disease, depression, diabetes and high blood pressure.

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Do you know why you should drink?

Prof. Know Why answers:

Drinking had been always associated with forgetfulness until recently, as a new research has overruled this age old theory. A glass or two of wine can boost our ability to remember, says a new study. Scientists have found that moderate amounts of alcohol challenge the brain and it responds by improving the memory.

The findings rubbished the notion of drinking to forget, as they also show drinking enough to exceed the limit for driving means you are more likely to remember the embarrassment of an unrestrained spell – from making an indecent proposal to dancing without your trousers on. Contrary to popular belief, it has also been found that excessive levels of alcohol even enhanced memories of highly emotional stimuli. In fact, heavy drinking actually reinforces negative memories.

But moderate levels of alcohol consumption, equivalent to one or two of wine a day, enhance memory on the whole. Researchers suggest - just like the best way to build strength in a muscle is to challenge the muscle, moderate levels of alcohol challenge the brain and it responds by improving memory.

So alcoholics, you get yet another excuse to rejoice and celebrate! Cheers!

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