Friday, July 20, 2007

Brainwashed worker-bees ensure dominance of queen

By John von Radowitz
Published: 20 July 2007

Queen honeybees rule over a "Brave New World" society where their workers are literally brainwashed to behave, scientists have learned.

The queen exerts her power by producing an aromatic chemical that inhibits negative tendencies in the young nurse drones who feed and groom her.

By preventing them from acquiring aggressive traits, she ensures her own dominance and that the hive remains a haven of order, peace and harmony.

Effectively, the pheromone chemical keeps the drones innocently enslaved to the queen. continue...


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