Meeting 1128 Minutes

Minutes from the 1128th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

The 1128th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club was called to order by President David Lubertazzi at 7:35 pm on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at MCZ 101. 12 members were in attendance.

New business: Patrick Gorring was nominated for membership

Jess Walden Gray reports that the gallery at Habitat, potentially the site for a CEC group show, is not available until 2012.

The meeting was preceded by a 6:00 pm public lecture at the Geological Hall, co-sponsored by the HMNH and the CEC. The speaker was Thomas Seeley, world-renowned animal behaviorist, Professor of Biology at Cornell, and most recently, author of “Honeybee Democracy”. In their search for a new hive site, honeybees employ a complex decision-making process that includes fact finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. Prof. Seeley explored what bees can teach us about collective wisdom and democracy. He described the parallels between idealized democracy and honeybee colonies. Both distribute control among the group members, making decisions based on the merits of competing proposals, and utilizing information sharing within the group. With the right organization, groups can potentially be smarter than the individuals within the group. Bees appear to exemplify this optimal organization, but how? Prof. Seeley described his research on Appledore Island and his efforts to answer this question.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,

Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary