Random snippets

Those of you who read The Week will already have seen these but for those who don’t, I found them irrestible.

Bumble bees enjoy playing ball

Professor Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary University of London, has been able to show that bumble bees enjoy rolling balls around just for the fun of doing so. The study also found that younger bees rolled more balls than older bees and that male bees rolled them for longer than female bees.

The study followed 45 bumble bees who were given the option of walking through an unobstructed path to reach a feeding area or deviating from this path into the areas with wooden balls. Repeatedly bees headed for the wooden ball area where they rolled the balls between 1 and 117 times!

In a further experiment another 42 bees were given access to two coloured chambers, one always containing movable balls and one without any objects. When given a choice between the two chambers, they went for the colour of the chamber where the balls had previously been even though, in the experiment, neither chamber contained any balls.

Thanks to the set up of the experiments, all carried out in stress free conditions, it was quite clear that rolling balls did not contribute to any secondary purpose such as getting food, clearing clutter or mating – they just did it for the hell of it!

For the research report, which includes videos of the bees rolling the wooden balls, go here: for a more detailed report on the experiments see Science Daily here.

The Black Death’s connection with Crohn’s disease

Researchers in Canada and Chicago used ancient DNA samples to search for variants enhanced by the Black Death. The team sampled DNA from the remains of more than 500 people in London and in Denmark who died before, during, and after the Black Death in 1348/9. In all, they were able include samples from more than 200 people in their analysis.

The researchers focused on regions of the genome known to be related to the immune system and immune disorders looking for genetic variants that became much more or less common after the Black Death. One variant stood out as being especially protective and individuals carrying two copies of this variant were about 40% more likely to survive than those without it. The variant was near the gene ERAP2 which encodes a protein that breaks pathogen proteins into smaller pieces to help the immune system detect infections. Cells possessing two copies of the protective variant produced more functional protein than those with just one copy. As a result those carrying the extra protein were more effective at killing the Y. pestis (bubonic plague) bacteria and were therefore more likely to survive. And those survivors who were of breeding age will have passed on their genes which will, centuries later, have come down to us.

However, there was a cost. The protective ERAP2 variant is also a known risk factor for Crohn’s disease while another protective variant has been associated with an increased risk of other autoimmune diseases.

The research was reported in Nature on October 19, 2022.ten

Nose picking lemurs

And finally, a fascinating article on the Natural history Museum site about Dr Anne-Claire Fabre, the curator of mammals at the Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern’, and her observations of aye-ayes, an endangered  lemur living in Madagascar, recently published in the Journal of Zoology.

Aye-ayes are among 11 primate species (including humans) known to pick their noses and, on occasion, to eat their snot. It seems that only animals with the ability to finely manipulate objects with their fingeres tend to be nose pickers. You can watch a video of Kali, one of the aye-ayes that Dr Fabre was observing, picking her nose on the site!

Possibly because it is viewed as socially unacceptable, nose picking, even without eating the snot, is rarely seriously studied. Howe er, it can have serious implications if it becomes a compulsive behaviour when it is called rhinotillexomania. Understanding what purpose it might have could therefore be useful.  There are some suggestions that it’s simply a response to discomfort as mucus dries in the nose, but others suggest it could provide a small amount of hydration. Some scientists believe that the microbes trapped within the mucus/snot could help maintain the resilience of our immune system. Meanwhile, another study suggests compounds in nasal mucus can reduce the ability of cavity-causing bacteria to attach to teeth, potentially contributing to our oral health.

I’ll say no more…