Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
When a honeybee dies it releases a death pheromone, a characteristic odour that signals the survivors to remove it from the hive. The corpse is promptly pushed and tugged out of the hive. The death pheromone is oleic acid. What happens if a live bee is dabbed with a drop of oleic acid? Then no matter how strapping and vigourous it might be, it is carried kicking and screaming out of the hive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates how bees react to death and how they expel deceased members to maintain the hive's health.
In this quote, Carl Sagan highlights the instinctual behavior of honeybees in response to death. The death pheromone, which is oleic acid, serves as a signal for the living bees to identify and remove the deceased, ensuring the hive remains healthy and functional. Interestingly, even a live bee treated with oleic acid is treated as if it were dead, showcasing the powerful influence of chemical signals in the animal kingdom and the delicate balance of life and death within their society.
Themes
BeesDeathPheromonesNatureOleic AcidHive
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about the social structure of bees to highlight cooperative behavior in nature.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes →In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
Carl SaganRead
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
Nature favors those organisms which leave the environment in better shape for their progeny to survive.
James LovelockRead
The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet.
John F. KennedyRead
We feel the beauty of nature because we are part of nature and because we know that however much in our separate domains we abstract from the unity of Nature, this unity remains. Although we may deal with particulars, we return finally to the whole pattern woven out of these.
Ernest Everett JustRead
Businesses and governments need to work together and make a joint commitment if we want to address climate change effectively and quickly.
Paul PolmanRead
The earth was all before me. With a heart Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty, I look about; and should the chosen guide Be nothing better than a wandering cloud, I cannot miss my way.
William WordsworthRead
If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.
E. O. WilsonRead