A new study shows that bumble bees can position a ball underneath a fake “flower” to reach a reward, suggesting that they might have the cognitive flexibility necessary to solve complex problems. Akshaye Bhambore and colleagues demonstrated through a series of experiments that bees succeeded at this task even when the flower was out of sight during the test, reflecting goal-directed behavior independent of perceptual feedback. “Our findings provide evidence that bumble bees can exhibit spontaneous problem-solving, challenging the notion that such advanced cognitive abilities are exclusive to large-brained vertebrates,” they write. Prior research has focused on how nonhuman primates and birds use tools or objects to adapt to challenges. By contrast, it has been unclear whether invertebrates can solve problems without explicit training. Here, Bhambore et al. investigated whether bumble bees could roll a ball into a pit and climb onto it to reach a reward on the ceiling. The researchers first pretrained the bees to associate a blue ring (representing a flower) with a sugar reward and to recognize that a Styrofoam ball inside the arena could be moved around. Bumblebees with prior experience with both the flower and ball (but not the problem task) were more successful at reaching the reward than controls who had either partial or no exposure to either object. The authors next included barriers that hid the flower from sight and later added a third condition in which bees could first explore the arena and then choose between locations to access the hidden flower. Some bees were motivated to roll the ball even when there was no reward present. However, most bees that succeeded at the task rolled the ball to the correct location without attempting the wrong site first, indicating that their decision was not made via trial and error. Further research could help pinpoint the decision-making process that underlies this behavior in insects.

The rise in remote work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has substantially increased time spent alone and worsened workers’ mental health, according to a new study based on survey data from more than 500,000 Americans. In evaluating remote employees’ mental health, the analysis moves beyond the main consequence of remote work more typically evaluated in studies to date: worker productivity. The study’s results suggest that “the shift in work location to the home carries measurable costs at the population level,” Emma Zhang and Rourke O’Brien write in a related Perspective. After the pandemic led to many people working from home, the results of studies evaluating the mental health impacts on employees were mixed. To understand remote work’s effect on human well-being better, Natalia Emanuel and colleagues analyzed data from five nationally representative US-based surveys that together spanned more than a decade and included 568,000 respondents. They compared workers’ experiences before the pandemic (2011 to 2019) with experiences from the post-peak period (2022 to 2024), excluding the acute pandemic years of 2020 to 2021. The authors found that workers in jobs amenable to remote work experienced substantially larger post-pandemic increases in time spent alone, worsened mental well-being across multiple measures, and increases in the use of mental health services and prescriptions. These effects were particularly pronounced among individuals living alone. Noting a limitation of their study, the authors said, “Given that our data end in 2024, we cannot fully capture long- term adaptations among remotable workers.” If workers made changes, such as cultivating social networks outside of work, they may not yet have reaped the full benefits by the time of the study, they added. “Across a range of remote work arrangements, both individuals and organizations may want to prioritize making remote work less isolating by, for example, coordinating in-office days for hybrid workers or encouraging informal interaction, even online,” Emanuel et al. conclude.

 

Data is available for the creation of data visualization images. For more information, please contact Natalia Emanuel at natalia@nataliaemanuel.com

National governments and multilateral institutions face the difficult challenge of reconciling economic development and environmental goals. Often one appears to come at the expense of the other.

Scams are now one of the most common crimes in the world. In the most recent issue of PSPI, real-life accounts are used to illustrate how pervasive and indiscriminate fraud can be.   

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, early age–onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) was associated with improved overall survival compared with average age–onset colorectal cancer; however, treatment delays were independently associated with worse survival among patients with EOCRC. Language barriers could be a potentially modifiable risk factor associated with delayed treatment and may provide an opportunity to improve timely care and outcomes in EOCRC. 

IMDEA Networks has been granted funding for four projects under the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), reinforcing its position as one of Europe’s leading research centers in 6G innovation. This year we have a 50% success rate in the proposals, and we participate in 20% of the projects selected in the call.