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Bees have very small brains. Still, they are very intelligent. Scientists at Queen Mary University of London did an experiment with bees. It shows that bees can learn something new to gain reward(奖励). Then they can teach other bees to do the same. And that’s not all they can do. Olli Luokola was one of the scientists who worded on the study. He said that the bees did not just copy what they saw. They actually improved on what they were learning. “This is of course amazing for small-brained insects,” he said. He added that it is even harder for humans to improve on something they learned by copying others.

For the experiment, the bees had to move a yellow ball into the center of a platform(平台). First, the scientists showed the bees how to do it. When the ball got into the center, the scientists added sugar water to reward the subjects. The bees learned that the rewards came when the ball was put in the right place. They got better and better at moving the balls. Then, they got more of the reward. After a while, they began to move the balls by themselves.

The scientists tried something else. They put the trained bees on a platform with bees that were not trained.

After watching the trained bees once, the untrained bees learned how to do it too. They didn’t just copy the behavior, though. The new bees also improved on the action；They chose balls closer to themselves. All brains-in people and people-have neurons(神经元) let you think. Scientist Reese Halter says bees are “highly intelligent creatures,” even though they have far fewer neutrons than humans. Halter explained that bees talk to each other with their bodies, but not like what we do. They use their bodies instead of words. They butt heads, bump into each other and they even dance. Luokola said scientists used to think that the smaller the brain, the less intelligent the animal! But this study proves(证明)that is not true.