The Flight of the Wooden Dancer

The Flight of the Wooden Dancer is constructed in multiple levels, and searching deeper one unveils hidden stories beneath the surface text. On one level Phoebus’s world could be a metaphorical representation for the honeybee’s role in nature. Here Manjoo doesn’t even mention the existence of bees, but they seem to be all over this story. Like the alternate realities in the book, the honeybees may be hidden behind the words (behind the veil/illusion of the world), beyond the literal perception of the reader. This should not only remind one of Lila’s role, but also the nature of Galatea which co-exists at the same time. Looking at one level at a time, you won’t even realise she is there, but she drives the narrative from behind the curtain like a puppeteer.

The Dance of the Honeybee

The dance of the honeybee was first noticed by Nobel Prize winning Austrian naturalist Karl von Frisch in 1944. The honeybees actually communicate with these circular or figure eight dances, which direct them toward the flower. This is also known as the tremble dance or the wiggle and the waggle.

Rival scientists built robotic honeybees to direct foraging bees with dances and odours. They found that the robotic honeybee was unable to locate the source without the odour. On the other hand the University of Munich professor Frisch examined honeybees for over half a century, and once believed in odours before developing his dance theory. Whatever the artificial intelligence experiment might hypothesize, real honeybees do use readings from the distance and directional cues from the dance. These directions are relative to the position of the sun because bees obviously don’t use compasses. So the honeybee adjusts the angle of the dance based on gravity and the movement of the sun, which varies from one tropic to another around the world. These readings are dependent on the seasons, the date and the time of day. So it’s remarkable when you consider bee fossils indicate they have been creating honey for over 150 million years.

The Illusion of the Honeybee Miracle

In order to make honey the bees need to construct hives, where 30,000 bees can live and work together. The honeycombs on each side of the hive consist of hundreds of identical tiny cells for food storage and nurture of young bees. The amazing architectural wonder is that the bees chose a hexagonal structure, which is the most suitable geometric form for the maximum use of unit area. Any other shape would result in the creation of less honey. Even though a triangular or quadrangular cell holds the same volume of honey, the shorter circumference of the hexagon minimizes the amount of wax required to build the hive. The bees start building the honeycomb from the upper side while constructing two or three separate rows continuously. So they expand in opposite directions before coming together in perfect harmony into one uniform piece.

So, if mathematicians need geometric calculations to realise these engineering methods, then how did the bees find this solution? Theists believe this is a sure sign of a design in nature which proves the existence of a creator. Fourteen centuries ago the following verse was written in the Qur’an in Sura an-Nahl 68-69:

‘Your Lord revealed to the bees: “Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow.” From inside them comes a drink of varying colours, containing healing for humanity. There is certainly a sign in that for people who reflect.’

However two centuries before the Qur’an the knowledge of the honeybee’s construction was already revealed by Greek mathematician Pappus. Most scientists were amazed until Hungarian mathematician Fejes Toth demonstrated that while the beehive is a wonder of the natural world, a human could build a more economical structure. He argued that the width of the bee cell walls is not uniform and the openings are far from regular. Toth concluded that the notion of the bees miracle saving is only an illusion.

Nevertheless honey contains vitamins B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3. In these there’s copper, iodine, zinc and various hormones. Honey cures several diseases, cleans the blood and boosts the body’s energy without adding weight.

The Unseen Healer

So it was time for man to play creator. The ‘Modern Prometheus/Frankenstein’ scientists attempted to synthesize bee pollen in a laboratory. When they fed bee’s manmade pollen it killed them. On the other hand the bees naturally produced pollen has the opposite effect by boosting life. Bee pollen not only stimulates ovarian functions but also heals illnesses. After thousands of chemical analyses, scientists were confused as to how their exact same creation could have the opposite effect. They concluded that the bee pollen probably consists of ingredients they were unable to identify with even the latest equipment.

Disappearing Honeybees

In terms of ‘invisible’ healing power, in recent years the honeybees themselves were mysteriously disappearing. In the United States beekeepers lost eighty percent of their colonies with tens of thousands passing away in twenty two states. The phenomenon is known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) but experts do not know the cause of the problem. Pesticides, mites, drought, bacteria, fungus and the Israeli acute paralysis virus (which disorients bee brains) were former issues but never on this scale. The change in weather patterns throughout the world has been sighted as one possibility, but the honeybees have existed for millions of years. They already survived a number of extreme climate changes throughout the world.

Albert Einstein: ‘If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live.’ Even though there’s no proof that Einstein actually said this and the point isn’t accurate, nature is at least dependent on the honeybee. They pollinate over 130,000 different types of plants which totals about a third of our food supply. CCD is a world problem but bees which evolved in the wild such as Africa are stronger, compared to those in Europe and the United States where a significant population is domesticated.

Updates

During the writing of The Flight of the Wooden Dancer scientists continued to fight the honeybee ‘wars’. If there is a significant breakthrough in this subject we will post updates on the website. According to the Apiary Inspectors of America CCD is still a threat but the problem isn’t as alarming as it used to be. Scientists are confident honeybees won’t be extinct in their lifetimes. Yet, the so-called experts still don’t know the cause of CCD. At least beekeepers are no longer throwing caution to the wind. It’s too early to rely solely on wind pollination.