Friday, 8 June 2018

Bees and the thought of naught

(CNRS) Honeybees can conceive and interpret zero. This has just been demonstrated by a scientist from the Research Centre on Animal Cognition (CNRS / Université Toulouse III--Paul Sabatier) and her Australian colleagues, proving for the first time ever that insects are capable of mathematical abstraction. As zero, designating nothingness, neutrality, or absence, is a relatively recent concept for humans, these findings -- published in Science (June 8, 2018) -- raise questions about its symbolic significance in the history of mathematics.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science https://ift.tt/2M8Cb6o

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