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CNN Sunday Morning

Busy as a Bee

Aired September 28, 2003 - 09:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of worker bees, much like the ones you just saw in our newsroom, laboring for a queen. It looks confused, but our Ann Kellan, has a high-tech explanation for what the buzz is all about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It looks so random as many as 50,000 bees in a hive. Each with a job, some guard, others build, or cool the hive. Some just lounge around.

Computer scientists at Georgia Tech marked the hardest workers with a color, and using specially designed software, are tracking them. These bees are the foragers, and when they find food, they do the waggle dance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The waggle, that's what we call it. Wiggle or waggle?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm always confused.

KELLAN: The bees shimmy and shake and point their bodies in the direction of the food. And fellow bees follow along paying close attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they waggle straight up that means the food is in that direction of the sun. If they waggle to the right, it to the right of the sun.

KELLAN: The further away the food is, the longer they waggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there. I'd say that's waggling, or arching left, or arching right. There's another waggle.

KELLAN: Scientists are now developing software to track every bee in the hive to better understand how this complex society thrives. They're testing the new software on ants. They are more spread out and easier to follow. They tell each other where the food is by bumping into each other. The ultimate goal to all of this is to develop robots that work as a team.

TUCKER BALCH, GEORGIA TECH: We want to try to unlock the secrets of the colonies and use what we find for controlling tens of thousands of robots. KELLAN: Who knows, some day we'll see armies of bee-bopping bots thanks to these "wrascally", waggling bees.

Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 28, 2003 - 09:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of worker bees, much like the ones you just saw in our newsroom, laboring for a queen. It looks confused, but our Ann Kellan, has a high-tech explanation for what the buzz is all about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It looks so random as many as 50,000 bees in a hive. Each with a job, some guard, others build, or cool the hive. Some just lounge around.

Computer scientists at Georgia Tech marked the hardest workers with a color, and using specially designed software, are tracking them. These bees are the foragers, and when they find food, they do the waggle dance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The waggle, that's what we call it. Wiggle or waggle?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm always confused.

KELLAN: The bees shimmy and shake and point their bodies in the direction of the food. And fellow bees follow along paying close attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they waggle straight up that means the food is in that direction of the sun. If they waggle to the right, it to the right of the sun.

KELLAN: The further away the food is, the longer they waggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there. I'd say that's waggling, or arching left, or arching right. There's another waggle.

KELLAN: Scientists are now developing software to track every bee in the hive to better understand how this complex society thrives. They're testing the new software on ants. They are more spread out and easier to follow. They tell each other where the food is by bumping into each other. The ultimate goal to all of this is to develop robots that work as a team.

TUCKER BALCH, GEORGIA TECH: We want to try to unlock the secrets of the colonies and use what we find for controlling tens of thousands of robots. KELLAN: Who knows, some day we'll see armies of bee-bopping bots thanks to these "wrascally", waggling bees.

Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com