Reuters

Bees with a buzz? A recent Oklahoma State University study looks at the effects of alcohol on insects.

To study the effect of alcohol on the behavior of one of the world’s most social insects, Oklahoma State University researchers dosed a hive of honeybees with a 2.5% ethanol (pure alcohol) content solution – a lower amount than found in your average beer. And it worked. The low does of ethanol disrupted the normal social (and even non-social) behaviors of the hive. According to the findings, “No differences in the relative frequency or proportion of time spent performing the target behaviors were observed. However, ethanol consumption significantly decreased bouts of walking, resting, and the duration of trophallactic (i.e., food-exchange) encounters.”

Hopefully for our sake, bees don’t make angry drunks.

(via Discover Magazine via io9)