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Abstract The Journal of Comparative Physiology A was founded in 1924 as theZeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologieby Karl von Frisch and Alfred Kühn. Given the marginalization of women in science at that time, it is remarkable that the first article in the Journal was authored by a female scientist, Ruth Beutler. Throughout her scientific career, she was affiliated with the Zoological Institute of the University of Munich, which, under the leadership of von Frisch, evolved into a world-class academic institution. Despite chronic health problems, Beutler was one of the first women who succeeded in obtaining theHabilitationas qualification for appointment to a professorial position. She was also one of the first scientists who applied methods from physiological chemistry to the study of zoological phenomena. Yet, for many years she was employed as a technician only, and she was never appointed to anOrdinarius(tenured full professorship) position. Her most important contributions to comparative physiology outside her own area of research were her support for, and protection of, Karl von Frisch, particularly during the Nazi era when he, as a ‘quarter-Jew,’ faced imminent threat of forced retirement; and after World War II, when her efforts as interimOrdinariuswere instrumental in re-building the bombed-out Zoological Institute to persuade Karl von Frisch to return to Munich. It was also one of her observations that prompted him to revisit, and revise, his earlier (incorrect) model of how honeybees communicate, through their dances, the direction and distances of food sources from the hive.
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Ingeborg Beling and the time memory in honeybees: almost one hundred years of research
Abstract Bees are known for their ability to forage with high efficiency. One of their strategies to avoid unproductive foraging is to be at the food source at the right time of the day. Approximately one hundred years ago, researchers discovered that honeybees have a remarkable time memory, which they use for optimizing foraging. Ingeborg Beling was the first to examine this time memory experimentally. In her doctoral thesis, completed under the mentorship of Karl von Frisch in 1929, she systematically examined the capability of honeybees to remember specific times of the day at which they had been trained to appear at a feeding station. Beling was a pioneer in chronobiology, as she described the basic characteristics of the circadian clock on which the honeybee's time memory is based. Unfortunately, after a few years of extremely productive research, she ended her scientific career, probably due to family reasons or political pressure to reduce the number of women in the workforce. Here, we present a biographical sketch of Ingeborg Beling and review her research on the time memory of honeybees. Furthermore, we discuss the significance of her work, considering what is known about time memory today — nearly 100 years after she conducted her experiments.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1946910
- PAR ID:
- 10495125
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Comparative Physiology A
- Volume:
- 210
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0340-7594
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 189-201
- Size(s):
- p. 189-201
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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