I have a pretty neat plan for Earth Day, next Friday. I’ll be in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center talking about bees.

The Constitution Center, in Independence National Historic Park, is having an Earth Day Celebration and at 11 am and 1 pm I’ll be talking, there, about Honeybee Democracy and what we can learn from these wonderful creatures.

You may recall that Prof. Tom Seeley from Cornell University wrote a book on that subject and talked about it with Ira on the Christmas Eve, 2010 Science Friday program, in honor of Lorenzo Langstroth’s 200th birthday. Well, since Prof. Seeley couldn’t bee in Philadelphia on Earth Day, I get to fill in.

For those of you following at home, I’ll be covering the very end of Chapter 6 in the book, entitled, Building a Consensus, where Prof. Seeley compares the way that humans and honey bees reach consensus. He writes, It appears… that a swarm of honey bees do something sharply different from what humans do to reach a full agreement in a debate….

If you’re in Philadelphia next Friday I hope you’ll come by and get involved in this conversation. I’m looking forward to it!