Tiny bee brains make light work of puzzles

Brainy bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days experts claim.

The insects learn to fly the shortest possible route between flowers discovered in random order.

Effectively, they are capable of solving the "travelling salesman problem" - unlike any other animal known besides humans, say scientists.

The classic conundrum involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations he has to visit.

Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest. Bees manage to reach the same solution using a brain the size of a grass seed.

Dr Nigel Raine, from the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: "Foraging bees solve travelling salesman problems every day. They visit flowers at multiple locations and, because bees use lots of energy to fly, they find a route which keeps flying to a minimum."

After exploring the location of the flowers, bees quickly learned to fly the best route for saving time and energy.

The research, due to appear this week in the journal The American Naturalist, has implications for the human world.

Modern living depends on networks such as traffic flows, internet information, and business supply chains.

"Despite their tiny brains bees are capable of extraordinary feats of behaviour," said Dr Raine. "We need to understand how they can solve the travelling salesman problem without a computer. What short-cuts do they use?"