On Your Best Bee-haviour
This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.
In 2008, Western University scientist Graham Thompson helped isolate a region on the honeybee genome that controls when workers help or cheat on their queen. It was the first time genes for selfish cheating behaviour had been isolated from any social animal, and their work provided a strong validation of sociobiological theory.