【NPR新闻】咖啡的神奇作用(1/3)

英语自学网

概述：咖啡能提高蜜蜂们的记忆能力，那对于人类呢？
        Hints:
        Science
        NPR
        Allison Aubrey
        Phil Stevenson
        Royal Botanic Garden
        Kew
        London
        citrus
        Pavlov
        proboscis
Most of us know what it feels like to have a little caffeine in our system. A cup of coffee wakes us up, gives us a bit of a buzz. Well, it turns out caffeinated nectar does something similar for honey bees. That's the finding of a new study published in the journal Science, as NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.
It's too early in the year to expect to see honey bees, says researcher Phil Stevenson, especially from his perch at Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, just outside London.
That's right. I mean, I've seen a couple of queens from but will be colonies around, but no honey bees as of yet. Yes, it's still a bit chilly for that.
But it won't be long. And Stevenson says when the bees start foraging for food in spring, they take long flights in search of nectar and then haul it back to their hives.
Now it turns out some of this nectar actually contains caffeine. Not just the nectar of coffee plants, but also citrus plants, including lemons, and oranges. So Stevenson and his colleague were curious. They wanted to know if this caffeinated nectar influenced the behavior of bees. So they designed a study.
And in this study, you can train bees to associate a reward of food with a smell. It's a little bit like Pavlov's dog. When Pavlov rang the bell, the dog salivated. In this case, when the bee detects the smell, it extends its proboscis.