【英國科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管花的分布位置不同，蜜蜂總是能夠在所有飛行路徑中找到最短的那條。迄今為止，蜜蜂是能夠解決“旅行銷售者問題”的動物?！?BR>    According to the Ahmedabad Mirror of October 27, British scientists have discovered that bees learn to fly the shortest possible route between flowers even if they discover the flowers in a different order.
    The bees are the first animals found to solve "travelling salesman problems".
    The travelling salesman must find the shortest route that allows him to visit all locations on his route. Computers solve it by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the shortest. However, bees solve it without computer assistance using a brain the size of grass seed.
    Nigel Raine, from the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway explains: "Foraging bees solve travelling salesman problems every day. They visit flowers at multiple locations and, because bees use lots of energy to fly, they find a route which keeps flying to a minimum."
    As well as enhancing our understanding of how bees move around the landscape pollinating crops and wild flowers, this research, has other applications. Our lifestyle relies on networks such as traffic on the roads, information flow on the Web and business supply chains.
    By understanding how bees can solve their problem we can improve our management of these everyday networks without needing lots of computer time.
    據(jù)國外網(wǎng)站"Ahmedabad Mirror"10月27日報(bào)道，英國科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管花的分布位置不同，蜜蜂總是能夠在所有飛行路徑中找到最短的那條。
    迄今為止，蜜蜂是能夠解決“旅行銷售者問題”的動物。
    銷售員在拜訪多個地點(diǎn)的時候要尋求一條最短的路徑。計(jì)算機(jī)將所有可能路徑進(jìn)行比較以后，然后選擇一條最短路徑。蜜蜂的大腦只有草籽一般大，也沒有電腦的幫助，但是卻已經(jīng)找到解決的方法。
    英國皇家霍洛韋生物科學(xué)學(xué)院研究人員奈杰爾•雷恩說：“蜜蜂每天都在花叢中飛來飛去，為了采蜜進(jìn)行飛行是一件很耗精力的事情，所以它們要將飛行控制在最短的距離。因此實(shí)際上蜜蜂每天都在解決“旅行銷售員問題”。
    除了加深我們理解蜜蜂如何在田野中飛行以及對農(nóng)作物和野花進(jìn)行授粉外，研究還可以應(yīng)用在其他領(lǐng)域。我們的生活在很大程度上是依賴“網(wǎng)絡(luò)”的，如公路上的交通、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的信息交流以及商業(yè)供應(yīng)鏈。
    通過了解蜜蜂是如何解決它們的問題，我們既不用借用電腦的幫助，又可以提高管理日常“網(wǎng)絡(luò)”工作效率。