Do bees like Van Gogh's Sunflowers?

Flower colours have evolved over 100 million years to address the colour vision of their bee pollinators. In a much more rapid process, cultural (and horticultural) evolution has produced images of flowers that stimulate aesthetic responses in human observers. The colour vision and analysis of visual patterns differ in several respects between humans and bees. Here, a behavioural ecologist and an installation artist present bumblebees with reproductions of paintings highly appreciated in Western society, such as Van Gogh's Sunflowers. We use this unconventional approach in the hope to raise awareness for between-species differences in visual perception, and to provoke thinking about the implications of biology in human aesthetics and the relationship between object representation and its biological connotations.     

Dynamic flight stability of a bumblebee in forward flight

The longitudinal dynamic flight stability of a bumblebee in forward flight is studied. The method of computational fluid dynamics is used to compute the aerodynamic derivatives and the techniques of eigenvalue and eigenvector analysis are employed for solving the equations of motion. The primary findings are as the following. The forward flight of the bumblebee is not dynamically stable due to the existence of one （or two） unstable or approximately neutrally stable natural modes of motion. At hovering to medium flight speed [flight speed Ue = （0-3.5）m s^-1; advance ratio J = 0-0.44], the flight is weakly unstable or approximately neutrally stable; at high speed （Ue = 4.5 m s^-1; J = 0.57）, the flight becomes strongly unstable （initial disturbance double its value in only 3.5 wingbeats）.     

“黄蜂石”的矿物成分及谱学特征研究

近期在广州荔湾珠宝市场出现一种具黄、黑条带的玉石品种,因其花纹形如黄蜂,商家称之为“黄蜂石”。“黄蜂石”的条纹状结构与缟玛瑙的条带状纹理非常相似,容易混淆。对“黄蜂石”进行显微岩相学、X射线粉晶衍射、电子探针、红外吸收光谱及拉曼光谱等分析,旨在探求其基本物理性质、矿物组成,以及谱学特征。结果显示：“黄蜂石”以灰白、黄橙、黑色为主,莫氏硬度3~5,相对密度2.58~2.73,长波紫外光下具弱黄色荧光,与稀盐酸反应起泡。显微岩相学分析显示,“黄蜂石”基质为方解石,呈不规则粒状,粒径0.02~0.3 mm,粒状、纤维状结构。“黄蜂石”中CaO的含量约为53.64%～56.66%,FeO的含量约为2.23%~3.62%,MgO的含量约为1.05%~1.79%,部分测试点中出现As和S元素。样品中Mg/Ca摩尔百分比为2.59%~4.68%,为低镁方解石。红外吸收光谱分析显示,“黄蜂石”的红外光谱特征吸收峰与碳酸盐类矿物理论值一致,为1 514,1 427,881和710 cm-1,由[CO₃]2-不对称伸缩振动、面内弯曲振动以及面外弯曲振动导致;黑色矿物中存在黄铁矿的特征峰1 123,1 050,423,1 123和1 050 cm-1为S-S伸缩振动,423 cm-1为Fe2+-[S₂]2-伸缩振动。拉曼光谱分析显示,样品的黄色部分中除具方解石的拉曼位移1 083,713,282和157 cm-1外,还有副雄黄的拉曼峰346,233和184 cm-1;橙红色部分显示雄黄的拉曼特征峰338,221及184 cm-1,338 cm-1由S-As-S伸缩振动所致,221 cm-1属于S-As-S弯曲振动结合As-S伸缩振动产生,184 cm-1与As-As伸缩振动相匹配。X射线粉晶衍射分析结果与红外吸收光谱、拉曼光谱等测试结果一致,即“黄蜂石”的主要矿物是方解石,次要矿物为黄铁矿、雄黄及副雄黄等,根据国家标准可定名为“碳酸盐质玉”。