Karl

Ritter Ritter (German for "knight") is a designation used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest rank within the nobility, standing above "Edler" and below "Freiherr" (Baron). As with most titles an ...

von Frisch, (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was a German-Austrian

ethologist Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objective ...

who received the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

in 1973, along with

Nikolaas Tinbergen Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (; ; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the or ...

and

Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded ...

. His work centered on investigations of the

sensory perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

s of the

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current co ...

and he was one of the first to translate the meaning of the

waggle dance Waggle dance is a term used in beekeeping and ethology for a particular figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nect ...

. His theory, described in his 1927 book ''Aus dem Leben der Bienen'' (translated into English as ''The Dancing Bees''), was disputed by other scientists and greeted with skepticism at the time. Only much later was it shown to be an accurate theoretical analysis.

Early life

Karl von Frisch was the son of the surgeon and urologist

Anton von Frisch Anton von Frisch (16 February 1849 – 24 May 1917), full name Anton Ritter von Frisch, was an Austrian urologist. Frisch was born in Vienna. He studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, afterwards returning to Vienna, where he served as a d ...

(1849–1917), by his marriage to Marie Exner. Karl was the youngest of four sons, all of whom became university professors. Von Frisch was of partial Jewish heritage. Karl studied in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

under

Hans Leo Przibram Hans Leo Przibram [] (7 July 1874 – 20 May 1944) was an Austrian people, Austrian biologist who founded the biological laboratory in Vienna. Career Hans was as elder son of Gustav and Charlotte Przibram. His mother was the daughter of Friedric ...

and in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

under

Richard von Hertwig Richard Wilhelm Karl Theodor Ritter von Hertwig (23 September 1850 in Friedberg, Hesse – 3 October 1937 in Schlederloh, Bavaria), also Richard Hertwig or Richard von Hertwig, was a German zoologist and professor of 50 years, notable as the fir ...

, initially in the field of medicine, but later turned to the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

. He received his doctorate in 1910 and in the same year started work as an assistant in the zoology department of the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

Career

In 1912 he became a lecturer in zoology and comparative anatomy there; and in 1919 was promoted to a professorship. His research on honeybees was continued by his student

Ingeborg Beling Ingeborg Beling (1904-1988) was a German Ethology, ethologist from the early 20th century who worked in the field of chronobiology. She studied at the University of Munich under the direction of Karl Von Frisch and is known for her research on the ...

. In 1921 he went to

Rostock University The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continen ...

as a professor of zoology and director of an institute. In 1923 he accepted the offer of a chair at Breslau University, returning in 1925 to Munich University, where he became the head of the institute of zoology. Von Frisch attracted negative attention from the Nazi regime, among other things for employing Jewish assistants, including many women, and for practicing "Jewish science". Eventually Frisch was forced into retirement, but the decision was reversed because of his research on nosema infections in bees. The institute of zoology was destroyed in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and in 1946 Frisch went to work at the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The unive ...

, remaining there until 1950, when he returned to the reopened Munich institute. He retired in 1958 but continued his research.

Personal life

Karl von Frisch married Margarete, née Mohr, who died in 1964. Their son, Otto von Frisch, was director of the Brunswick natural history museum between 1977 and 1995.

Research

Frisch studied aspects of

animal behaviour Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...

, including

animal navigation Animal navigation is the ability of many animals to find their way accurately without maps or instruments. Birds such as the Arctic tern, insects such as the monarch butterfly and fish such as the salmon regularly migrate thousands of miles t ...

, in the Carniolan honey bee (''Apis mellifera carnica''), a subspecies of the

European honey bee The western honey bee or European honey bee (''Apis mellifera'') is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name ''Apis'' is Latin for "bee", and ''mellifera'' is the Latin for "honey-bearing" or "honey carrying", ...

Bee perception

Frisch discovered that bees can distinguish various blossoming plants by their scent, and that each bee is "flower constant". Surprisingly, their sensitivity to a "sweet" taste is only slightly stronger than in humans. He thought it possible that a bee's spatial sense of smell arises from the firm coupling of its olfactory sense with its tactile sense. Frisch was the second to demonstrate that honey bees had

color vision Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...

, the first being Charles Henry Turner which he accomplished by using

classical conditioning Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a triangle). It also refers to the learni ...

. He trained bees to feed on a dish of sugar water set on a colored card. He then set the colored card in the middle of a set of gray-toned cards. If the bees see the colored card as a shade of gray, then they will confuse the blue card with at least one of the gray-toned cards; bees arriving to feed will visit more than one card in the array. On the other hand, if they have color vision, then the bees visit only the blue card, as it is visually distinct from the other cards. A bee's

color perception Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...

is comparable to that of humans, but with a shift away from the red toward the

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...

part of the spectrum. For that reason bees cannot distinguish red from black (colorless), but they can distinguish the colors white, yellow, blue and violet. Color pigments which reflect UV radiation expand the spectrum of colors which can be differentiated. For example, several blossoms which may appear to humans to be of the same yellow color will appear to bees as having different colors (multicolored patterns) because of their different proportions of ultraviolet. Frisch's investigation of a bee's powers of orientation were significant. He discovered that bees can recognize the desired compass direction in three different ways: by the sun, by the polarization pattern of the blue sky, and by the earth's magnetic field, whereby the sun is used as the main compass, with the alternatives reserved for the conditions arising under cloudy skies or within a dark

beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

. Light scattered in a blue sky forms a characteristic pattern of partially polarized light which is dependent on the position of the sun and invisible to human eyes. With a UV receptor in each of the lens units of a compound eye, and a UV filter oriented differently in each of these units, a bee is able to detect this polarization pattern. A small piece of blue sky is enough for a bee to recognize the pattern changes occurring over the course of a day. This provides not only directional but also temporal information. Frisch proved that variations in the position of the sun over the course of a day provided bees with an orientation tool. They use this capability to obtain information about the progression of the day deep inside a dark beehive comparable to what is known from the position of the sun. This makes it possible for the bees to convey always up-to-date directional information during their waggle dance, without having to make a comparison with the sun during long dance phases. This provides them not only with alternative directional information, but also with additional temporal information. Bees have an internal clock with three different synchronization or timekeeping mechanisms. If a bee knows the direction to a feeding place found during a morning excursion, it can also find the same location, as well as the precise time at which this source provides food, in the afternoon, based on the position of the sun. Based on the magnetic field, the alignment of the plane of a

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic Beeswax, wax cells built by honey bees in their beehive, nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. beekeeping, Beekee ...

under construction (e.g., the new honeycomb of a swarm) will be the same as that of the home hive of the swarm, according to Frisch. By experiment, even deformed combs bent into a circle can be produced. The vertical alignment of the honeycomb is attributed by Frisch to the ability of bees to identify what is vertical with the help of their head used as a pendulum together with a ring of sensory cells in the neck.

Dances as language

Knowledge about feeding places can be relayed from bee to bee. The means of communication is a special dance of which there are two forms:

Round dance

The " round dance" provides the information that there is a feeding place in the vicinity of the beehive at a distance between 50 and 100 meters, without the particular direction being given. By means of close contact among the bees it also supplies information about the type of food (blossom scent).

The foraging bee ... begins to perform a kind of "round dance". On the part of the comb where she is sitting she starts whirling around in a narrow circle, constantly changing her direction, turning now right, now left, dancing clockwise and anti-clockwise, in quick succession, describing between one and two circles in each direction. This dance is performed among the thickest bustle of the hive. What makes it so particularly striking and attractive is the way it infects the surrounding bees; those sitting next to the dancer start tripping after her, always trying to keep their outstretched feelers on close contact with the tip of her abdomen. ... They take part in each of her manoeuvrings so that the dancer herself, in her mad wheeling movements, appears to carry behind her a perpetual comet's tail of bees.

Waggle dance

The "

" is used to relay information about more distant food sources. In order to do this, the dancing bee moves forward a certain distance on the vertically hanging honeycomb in the hive, then traces a half circle to return to her starting point, whereupon the dance begins again. On the straight stretch, the bee "waggles" with her posterior. The direction of the straight stretch contains the information about the direction of the food source, the angle between the straight stretch and the vertical being precisely the angle which the direction of flight has to the position of the sun. The distance to the food source is relayed by the time taken to traverse the straight stretch, one second indicating a distance of approximately one kilometer (so the speed of the dance is inversely related to the actual distance). The other bees take in the information by keeping in close contact with the dancing bee and reconstructing its movements. They also receive information via their sense of smell about what is to be found at the food source (type of food, pollen,

propolis Propolis or bee glue is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the beehive. Pro ...

, water) as well as its specific characteristics. The orientation functions so well that the bees can find a food source with the help of the waggle dance even if there are hindrances they must detour around like an intervening mountain. As to a sense of hearing, Frisch could not identify this perceptive faculty, but it was assumed that vibrations could be sensed and used for communication during the waggle dance. Confirmation was later provided by Dr. Jürgen Tautz, a bee researcher at Würzburg University's Biocenter.

"Dialects"

The linguistic findings described above were based on Frisch's work primarily with the Carnica variety of bees. Investigations with other varieties led to the discovery that language elements were variety-specific, so that how distance and direction information is relayed varies greatly.

Other work

Frisch's

work included the study of the

pheromones A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

that are emitted by the

queen bee A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed ...

and her daughters, which maintain the hive's very complex social order. Outside the hive, the pheromones cause the male bees, or drones, to become attracted to a queen and mate with her. Inside the hive, the drones are not affected by the odor.

Honors and decorations

Lieben Prize The Ignaz Lieben Prize, named after the Austrian banker , is an annual Austrian award made by the Austrian Academy of Sciences to young scientists working in the fields of molecular biology, chemistry, or physics. Biography The Ignaz Lieben Priz ...

(1921) *

Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences Pour may refer to these people: * Kour Pour (born 1987), British artist of part-Iranian descent * Mehdi Niyayesh Pour (born 1992), Iranian footballer * Mojtaba Mobini Pour (born 1991), Iranian footballer * Pouya Jalili Pour (born 1976), Iranian si ...

(1952) * Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

(1952) * Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1954 * Honorary ring of Vienna (1956) *

Kalinga Prize The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an award given by UNESCO for exceptional skill in presenting scientific ideas to lay people. It was created in 1952, following a donation from Biju Patnaik, Founder President of the Kalinga ...

for the Popularization of Science (1958) *

Bavarian Order of Merit The Bavarian Order of Merit (german: Bayerischer Verdienstorden) is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria ...

(1959) * Foreign Member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

(1959) *

Austrian Medal for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian D ...

(1960) *

Balzan Prize The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organizations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the br ...

for Biology "For having consecrated his entire life to experimenting on thousands of bees, thus discovering a true language of gestures for communication and opening new insights into the knowledge of insect behaviour" (motivation of the Balzan General Prize Committee). (1962) *

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according ...

, with

and

for his achievements in comparative behavioral physiology and pioneering work in communication between insects. (1973) * Grand Merit Cross with Star and Sash of the Federal Republic of Germany (''Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband'') (1974) *

Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art The Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (german: Bayerischer Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst, links=no) was first established on 28 November 1853 by King Maximilian II von Bayern. It is awarded to acknowledge and reward exc ...

(1981) * In his honor, the Karl Ritter von Frisch Medal of the German Zoological Society (''Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft'', DZG), is awarded every two years to scientists whose work is distinguished by extraordinary zoological achievements which represent an integration of insights from several different biological disciplines. It is Germany's most important science prize in zoology and includes prize money of 10,000 euros. * Member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

– National Academy of Sciences * Honorary doctorates from a number of universities, honorary membership of numerous academies and scientific societies

Publications

In German

* ''Der Farben- und Formensinn der Bienen.'' In: Zoologische Jahrbücher (Physiologie) 35, 1–188, (1914–15) * ''Über den Geruchssinn der Bienen und seine blütenbiologische Bedeutung.'' In: Zoologische Jahrbücher (Physiologie) 37, 1–238 (1919) * ''Über die ‚Sprache' der Bienen. Eine tierpsychologische Untersuchung.'' In: Zoologische Jahrbücher (Physiologie) 40, 1–186 (1923) * ''Aus dem Leben der Bienen.'' Springer Verlag Berlin (1927) * ''Untersuchung über den Sitz des Gehörsinnes bei der Elritze.'' In: Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie 17, 686–801 (1932), it R. Stetter * ''Über den Geschmacksinn der Bienen.'' In: Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie 21, 1–156 (1934) * ''Du und das Leben – Eine moderne Biologie für Jedermann.'' (1936) iterally, ''You and Life: A Modern Biology for Everyman''* ''Über einen Schreckstoff der Fischhaut und seine biologische Bedeutung.'' In: Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie 29, 46–145 (1941) * ''Die Tänze der Bienen.'' In: Österreichische Zoologische Zeitschrift 1, 1–48 (1946) * ''Die Polarisation des Himmelslichtes als orientierender Faktor bei den Tänzen der Bienen.'' In: Experientia (Basel) 5, 142–148 (1949) * ''Die Sonne als Kompaß im Leben der Bienen.'' In: Experientia (Basel) 6, 210–221 (1950) * ''Das kleine Insektenbuch.'' Insel Verlag (1961) * ''Tanzsprache und Orientierung der Bienen.''

Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

Berlin/Heidelberg/New York (1965) * ''Aus dem Leben der Bienen.'' Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg/New York (1927; 9. Auflage 1977), * ''Erinnerungen eines Biologen.'' Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Göttingen/Heidelberg 1957 (Autobiographie) * ''Die Tanzsprache der Bienen. Originaltonaufnahmen 1953–1962'', hrsg. v. Klaus Sander. 2-CD-Set. supposé, Köln 2005. * ''Tiere als Baumeister''. Frankfurt a.M., Ullstein, 1974. 309 Seiten. 105 Zeichnungen & 114 Photographien.

In English

* ''The Dancing Bees: An Account of the Life and Senses of the Honey Bee'', Harvest Books New York (1953), a translation of ''Aus dem Leben der Bienen'', 5th revised edition, Springer Verlag * ''About Biology'', Oliver & Boyd (1962), a translation of ''Du Und Das Leben'' * ''Animal Architecture'' (originally published as ''Tiere Als Baumeister''.) New York, Helen and Kurt Wolff. () (1974 1st edition) * ''The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees'', Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press (1967), a translation of ''Tanzsprache und Orientierung der Bienen''

Notes

References

External links

Tribute to Karl von Frisch by Cyrille Janisset

* with the nobel Lecture December 12, 1973 ''Decoding the Language of the Bee''
Biography and bibliography
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. Th ...

of the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frisch, Karl von 1886 births 1982 deaths Scientists from Vienna Austrian beekeepers Ethologists University of Vienna alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Foreign Members of the Royal Society Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty University of Rostock faculty University of Breslau faculty Academics of the University of Graz Austrian knights Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Austrian Nobel laureates Austro-Hungarian Nobel laureates Austrian people of Czech-Jewish descent Kalinga Prize recipients Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German zoologists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences