Surprising Science — April 21, 2010

Bee Faster

Researchers have found that bees see the world nearly five times as quickly as humans do, helping them to navigate through bushes and find food.

bigthinkeditor

Researchers have found that bees see the world nearly five times as quickly as humans do. Bumblebees have the fastest color vision of all animals, helping them to navigate through bushes to find food. Fast-flying insects commonly have an ability to see quickly, but it’s now clear that bees’ color vision—which burns more energy than monochrome sight—is able to keep up with their high-speed flying.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Surprising Science

Anti-Laptop Classrooms

University authorities—seeing the distraction that the Internet and social media can cause—are trying a varied of methods to get students to turn off their computers in class.