Maybe you missed this tidbit in the news, so let me catch you up.  A group of researchers has been training bees to do tricks, aka “nonnatural object manipulation.”  Last Saturday evening I was searching through a scientific journal for articles about bees.  (Reading articles about bees is our idea of a fun Saturday night, and it is a big reason why my husband and I can get by with a very low entertainment budget.)  Imagine my surprise when I read a title in the journal PLOS Biology called, “Associated Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect.”  Continue reading →