New Book Links Political Buzz With Honeybees’ Search for New Hive

When it's time to move their hives, honeybees are able to quickly identify a high-quality nesting site without approval from the king or queen bee. Carnegie Mellon University economist and complexity theorist John H. Miller argues that there are lessons to be learned by understanding how bees in a hive, and a variety of other systems, interact. "The U.S. political primary system has similar features,” explained Miller, professor of economics and social science in the Dietrich College 's Social and Decision Sciences Department. "Different candidates rise and fall over time and, in theory, more attention and evaluation is paid to the more promising candidates. When honeybees search for a new hive, scout bees leave the swarm and identify potential sites. The returning scout bees perform a waggle dance to advertise the location of the new site to other scout bees. Scout bees that find better locations dance for longer periods of time, and thus a positive feedback loop emerges in the system.