Bees brighter than we knew, study finds
They pass cognitive tests usually given apes, people

Bees are famously busy -- but they're also pretty brainy.

Our pollen-hunting friends possess "higher cognitive functions," judging by cunning experiments in which the creatures learned to compare and distinguish different colors and patterns, according to today's issue of Nature.

In what an outside expert praises as "an exciting discovery," the French researcher Martin Giurfa and four colleagues showed that honeybees -- that's Apis mellifera to bee fanciers -- excel at cognitive tests normally performed by lab primates and human volunteers.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/04/1 9/MN123916.DTL&type=science

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Warming threatens buildings in the Arctic

Global warming could weaken the ice-soil mixture called permafrost in areas surrounding the Arctic Circle, leading to damage to buildings, pipelines, and electric generating stations, according to a study by a University of Delaware geographer and his colleagues, appearing in the April 19 issue of Nature.

Large cities in Siberia and smaller ones in Alaska and Canada run the risk of being affected, Frederick Nelson, told United Press International.

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http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/04/04192001/upi_warming_43140.asp

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Shallow end for amphibians

Twenty amphibian species are thought to have become extinct in the past decade. Many more are in severe decline. And no one really understands why.

Researchers now propose that, in the northwest United States at least, amphibians are dying out because of climate change.

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http://www.nature.com/nsu/010404/010404-13.html

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Colour-change paint can cut fuel bills

PAINT that heats your home and changes colour with the seasons has been developed by Chinese scientists.

The product also cuts heating bills in winter and cools houses in summer. The coating, developed at Tongji University in Shanghai, absorbs heat from the sun when the temperature outdoors drops below 20C (68F). On summer days the paint automatically reflects sunlight to keep a building cool.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004815539630480&rtmo=pselbS4e&atmo=rrrrrrr q&pg=/et/01/4/19/wpaint19.html

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001