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"Quantum Honeybees" by Adam Frank. Discover, November 1997, pages 80-87.
When they return to the hive, honeybees perform a dance for their fellow bees to communicate the location of food sources. The world of honeybees seems a far cry from the 6-dimensional mathematical objects known as flag manifolds. Yet it was in studying these objects that mathematician Barbara Shipman found that certain shapes derived from flag manifolds bear striking resemblance to the shapes traced out in the honeybees' choreography. This article describes Shipman's ideas as well as the controversy she has created by suggesting a link between the honeybees' dance and quantum mechanics.
--- Allyn Jackson
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