Hank: Bumblebees have a superpower; they can tell a tremendous amount about their world with electric fields. See, pollen tends to have a negative charge, and bees tend to be positively charged because as the bee flies around, friction from the air rubs electrons off its hairs - fewer electrons, positive charge.

So a positively charged bumblebee rolls up on a negatively charged flower and, like the poles of a magnet, the flowers pulls on the bee's hairs, which ultimately sends a signal to the bee's brain. Depending on how strong that pull is, bees can learn how much pollen a flower has, and they may be even able to tell if other bees have been to that flower and recently taken its resources. Because when a bee lands, its positive charge interacts with the negative charge from that flower, so the flower's overall electric fields changes.

So just by sensing electric fields, a bumblebee can tell whether or not a flower is worth a visit.

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