The understanding that even bees have feelings is changing our view of consciousness
New Scientist · Rowan Hooper ·
From jays that seem to say "sorry" to insects that play, signs of emotional inner life across the animal kingdom are giving us new perspectives on what consciousness is, and how we might pin it down
Bees seem to have surprisingly complex emotions
I recently discovered some scientific research that struck me to the core. I have spent many years exploring biology and the interconnectedness of life. Yet here was something that cut through all the knowledge I thought I had acquired: scientists have found that if male fruit flies are deprived of sex with females, they turn to alcohol. I immediately headed to the kitchen - not for a drink, but to watch some fruit flies I had seen earlier around a slice of lime my daughter had failed to clear away.
I took my hand lens, carefully snuck close to a Drosophila and peered into its red, mosaicked eye. We might be separated in evolutionary time by some 780 million years, I thought, but we share fundamental similarities. Natural selection has equipped us both with a brain that functions to improve our survival and that of our offspring. Is this why both flies and humans, on occasion, seek to douse flames of sexual rejection with alcohol? Just because flies don’t write poetry about it doesn’t mean they don’t experience a rich inner life.
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