Stephen L. Buchmann

"The next time you hear the low buzzing sound of an approaching bee, look closer: the bee has navigated to this particular spot for a reason using a fascinating set of tools. She might be responding to scents on the breeze as her olfactory organs provide a 3D map of an object's location. She might be tracing the route based on her memories of a particular flower or the electrostatic traces left by other bees. What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts,...

An exploration of the roles flowers play in the production of our foods, spices, medicines, and perfumes reveals their origins, myriad shapes, colors, textures and scents, bizarre sex lives, and how humans--and the natural world--relate and depend upon them.

"In Letters from the Hive, Professor Stephen Buchmann takes us into the hive - nursery, honey factory, queen's inner sanctum - and out to the world of backyard gardens, open fields, and deserts in bloom, where the age-old sexual dance between flowers and bees makes possible life on earth as we know it. Hailed for their hard work, harmonious society, and (mistakenly) for their celibacy, bees have a link to our species that goes beyond biology. Letters...