New research finds 'Honeybees can do Math', could help humans communicate with aliens

A group of Australian scientists has expressed the possibility of developing a “universal” language that will allow humans to send and receive messages from extraterrestrial life.

Researchers took on the challenge to find a way to communicate with aliens if someday astronomers, looking across vast distances of interstellar space searching for alien life, get successful in establishing a contact with them.

The unlikely inspiration behind the groundbreaking development is the honeybee. 

According to scientists, the closest creature to an alien we have on earth is a honeybee, possessing six legs, five eyes and a completely different social structure.

However, there exist certain similarities between humans and the tiny creatures. 

Recent research reveals that honeybees have the ability to do math and based on this discovery, scientists think that mathematics could become the basis of a universal language.

Dr Adrian Dyer of Monash University said that because humans and bees are separated by 600 million years in evolutionary time, both creatures developed different physiologies, brain sizes and cultures.

He added that despite these significant differences, both species seem to have similar basic understanding of math.

Researchers conducted experiments and bees demonstrated an ability to link abstract symbols with numbers, in a very simple version of how humans learn the Arabic numerals.

The idea of mathematics being a universal language is not new as it first surfaced in 1974; however, researchers were not sure whether aliens would have a similar basic understanding of math.