Once again, I've stayed up all night reading research papers instead of going to bed on time or getting work done. This happens every time I work on a patch for Hive Time.
I think my favourite paper of the evening was this one https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.805385/full
Howard, Greentree, Avarguès-Weber, Garcia, Greentree and Dyer (2022) Numerosity Categorization by Parity in an Insect and Simple Neural Network
Available CC BY 4.0
@Cheeseness You seem to be really interested in bees. Have you, by any chance, read 'A Sting in the Tale' (Dave Goulson)? 🐝
@sudo I have not. Sounds interesting.
@Cheeseness It's a great read. It really highlights the diversity among bee species and the lack of awareness around bumblebees, who are just as important to preserving the ecosystem.
@sudo It's difficult here (and in New Zealand I suspect), where bumblebees are invasive and have an impact not only on native bee populations, but also on plant behaviour (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-022-02729-2)
I'm glad to know that there's effort to preserve and restore them in their natural habitats, though!
@sudo Iive in Tasmania rather than South America, where bumblebees were introduced in 1992, and in addition to competing with native insects, they're also believed to have played a role in increasing the spread of some introduced plant species that didn't previously have as suited a pollinator.
It's complex!
@Cheeseness It definitely is complex! We have really 'messed up' this planet. Is it even possible to restore it? 😧 🤔
@Cheeseness I agree, but convincing everyone to do that is much difficult. Even trying to do that on a much smaller scale is extremely difficult and cumbersome. Taking dramatic action 'right now' is not really practical because of it.
It would take a serious shift in mentality to actually make any impactful change. Although we are beginning to see signs of it, it's not really moving fast enough. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war have only served to set us back even further. 😟
@Cheeseness It's not all bad news, though, as I heard some countries are switching to renewable energy sources in order to stop depending on Russian oil. 😄
I really hope this war ends, though. Every second it drags on is another 'giant leap' towards destroying our world in more ways than one. ☮️ 🌳
@sudo It's easy to focus on the specifics of current situations, but that's basically been the narrative since the 70s (and probably earlier, but as an 80s kid, my awareness of contemporary attitudes further back is more vague).
My take is that it's less difficult and cumbersome to take dramatic action now than it will be at any point in the future. From that perspective, that framing of practicality is way off base.
@sudo I find the pandemic specifically disappointing because this seemed like it'd be a good opportunity to have humanity at large be empowered by seeing the real and tangible impact of lifestyle changes (eg, people in areas with high air pollution being able to see the horizon for the first time in decades after a little time in lockdown), and using that as a stepping stone for tackling bigger problems. Unfortunately, the premature rush to "return to normal" seems to show the exact opposite
@Cheeseness I know right! I was also hoping that people being able to see that very thing would make an impact. It is quite disappointing indeed. Not to mention, the dumping of masks has created an even bigger issue now.
@sudo I'm probably not qualified to give an authoritative answer, but my suspicion is that much like everything else, the answer is, "No, but if we take dramatic action right now, can can limit how much will be lost."