An extract from Scientriffic, CSIRO’s science magazine for ages 7+. In this article, you'll find out whether bigger is better in regard to brains.
What do a small dog, two watermelons and a sperm whale’s brain have in common? They all weigh around eight kilograms. An adult human’s brain only weighs about one and a half kilograms, so why can’t a whale calculate sums or read and write?
You might think that the bigger the brain, the smarter the creature; but scientists have found by studying bees - which have brains the size of a sesame seed - that brain size doesn’t matter.
Bees might have a small brain but they are still able to count. They can also tell the difference between symmetrical (sim-EH-tree-kal) shapes - shapes that are the same on both sides, like honeycomb - and asymmetrical (AY-sim-EH-tree-kal) shapes - shapes which are not the same on both sides. Bees can also recognise human faces for at least two days, which many larger creatures cannot do.
From studying bees, scientists have discovered that it is the number of neurons - cells in your brain - and how these neurons are connected that determines how smart a creature is.
Studying small creatures like bees can be really useful for scientists, as it can answer some of the tricky questions we have about larger, more complex brains, like ours.
So, a bee's brain might be small, but it can hold more useful information than a brain many times its size.
Stephanie Kuisma
Read more about Scientriffic: a science magazine for ages 7+.
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