The Caffeinated Lives Of Bees

      The Caffeinated Lives of Bees, by David Frank and James Gordon, the author describes how caffeine affects bees in a powerful way. When bees come in contact with caffeine it improves the bee’s memory and learning. Caffeinated bee’s comes back to the flower with the caffeine more often than the bee’s that gets regular nectar from the flowers. When a honeybee finds a really good nectar source they go back to their hive and communicate by dancing.

     

In the article, the line “What she found was that bees were drawn to caffeine like office workers to a coffee cart and that the favorite drug of so many human beings changed how bees evaluated nectar quality”. This quote shows that Margaret J. Couvillon, who studies bees, thinks that they have a strong connection with humans. Both humans and bees are drawn towards caffeine.

“Honeybees communicate with the rest of the hive about the sources of nectar they’ve found by shaking their abdomens in what is called the waggle dance. They don’t always dance; it depends on how good the nectar source”. Abdomens are the part of the body of a vertebrate containing the digestive organs; the belly. In humans and other mammals, it is bounded by the diaphragm and the pelvis. I got this from dictionary.com. If a honeybee finds a good nectar, they would go back to the hive and dance to show the bees they found a good nectar. Bees often have a number on their backs, and they shake their tails and that is called  the waggle dance. Waggle dance is common to bees that finds caffeine in the nectar.

The line, “In effect, Dr.Cauvillon said, caffeine “causes the bees to overestimate the quality of the resource.” I think this means that when you put caffeine in the nectar flower, it’ll make the nectar stronger and taste more better than regular nectar.That’ll cause the honeybee to come back to the flower more times than when another honeybee would go back to a flower if it was just regular nectar.

This article shows me that in life, we can be compared to lots of other things. For example, we can be compared to bees because some humans really enjoy the taste of caffeine. Once someone drinks it at first they probably wouldn’t like it. But as more as you drink it you’ll get use to it and at one point you’re going to get attached and drawn to caffeine all the time. Like the bees in the article.

What is the What

   In the book What is the What the author Dave Eggers talks about a “lost boy” from Sudan. The boy’s name is Achak Deng but when he moved to Atlanta he started to use his christian name Valentino. The book walks you through Achak’s life. The book is set in America. Achak was the son of a somewhat powerful father. He escapes the Sudan genocide and goes to a refugee camp. The book talks about Achak’s struggles through mostly flashbacks.
   Achak moved to Atlanta and is staying with another Sudanese man. He has had many jobs. Currently he is in school. However many people make fun of him for being from Africa. One night a women knocks on his door. She asks if she can use his phone. He gives her permission, this was not a good idea. She when into his room and locked the door. She starts to rob Achak. Her accomplice who is a man comes in and ties up and beats up Achak because he talks. While they are robbing him Achak has flashbacks of walking through the desert with 100 other boys. He talks about how some of them were attacked by lions. Also how he saw people infant of him get shot to death. 
     When the robbers leave Achak is unconscious. When he wakes up he sees a boy sitting on the couch watching tv witch was too heavy for the robbers to take. He tries to talk to him but he throws a book. He keeps trying to talk but he never responds. During this Achak has different kinds of flashbacks. He has flashbacks about his earlier life. Such as meetings he attended with his father before the war started. Also one about when the baggara attacked the town and Achak and his mom fled.
       The book shows the struggle and suffering of the victims of the Sudan genocide. There will be a part 2 because I haven’t finished the book. The author does a good job  transitioning from flashbacks to the present. The book is a must read.