Scientists at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University have made a fascinating discovery about the honeybee—that it can understand the mathematical value of zero.
The discovery came after researchers attempted to train bees to recognise lower values.
Using sucrose as a reward, the bees were trained to navigate toward an image with a lower number of elements. For example, when presented with three or four elements, the bee would choose three; when presented with two or three elements, the bee would choose two.
Researcher Scarlett Howard took the study one step further when she attempted to present the bees with an image that had no elements and an image with one or two elements. The bees navigated toward the image with no elements, despite never having been exposed to an “empty set,” RMIT said in a press release.
