!!!Frisch, Karl

Frisch, Karl, b. Vienna, Nov. 20, 1886, 
d. Munich (Germany), June 12, 1982, zoologist, animal 
psychologist; studied the behaviour of bees; Won Nobel Prize for 
Physiology in 1973 with K.  Lorenz and N. Tinbergen for the discovery 
of the way bees communicate with each other; studied in Vienna; 1921 
professor at Rostock University; later in Bremen; 1946 in Graz; 1950 
in Munich. He focused his studies on the honey bee (Apis mellifera) 
and demonstrated among other things the bees' sense of colour. A bee 
does not see the colour red, but perceives ultraviolet rays, which in 
turn are invisible to human beings. F. showed that bees orientate 
themselves with the help of polarized light, which enables them to 
determine the exact position of the sun even when it is overcast. F. 
discovered the "language of bees", by means of which a collector bee 
(scout bee) communicates the position of a source of nectar or the 
distance from the hive to a particular flower to its hivemates. The 
collector bee informs the other bees by performing a particular dance, 
known as "tail-wagging dance", in a figure-eight pattern. The 
direction or the angle the bee runs (from straight up) indicates the 
angle of the nectar source from the sun. The speed at which the dance 
is performed indicates the distance.

!Works
Die Sprache der Bienen, 1923; Aus dem Leben der Bienen, 1927; 
Du und das Leben, 1936; Duftgelenkte Bienen, 1947; Biologie 2 vols., 
1952/1953; Erinnerungen eines Biologen, 1957 (autobiography); 
Tanzsprache und Orientierung der Bienen, 1965 (The Dance Language and 
Orientation of Bees, 1967).



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