Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,uk.legal,uk.politics
From: [p h z] at [cadence.com] (Pete Zakel)
Subject: Re: DARE doesn't work.  (Was: Drug Education Does Not Prevent Use)
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 20:02:23 GMT

>But D.A.R.E. executive director Glenn Levant
>calls the studies flawed and not comprehensive:  "Scientists, will
>tell you bumble bees can't fly, but we know they can."

Ah, yes.  The old urban legend about scientists and bees.

There was a time many years ago when scientists did not understand how
sufficient lift was generated by a bumblebee's wings to lift the mass
of the bumblebee.  Part of this was because scientists believed that the
wing stroke of an insect was similar to the wing stroke of a bird and only
generated lift on the downstroke.  No scientist would have said that
bumblebees *couldn't* fly, only that the mechanism was poorly understood.

After studying the insects with high-speed photography, it was found that
bumblebees and many other insects (particularly dragonflies) generate lift
by beating the wings forward and back, not up and down, and that lift was
generated both on the forestroke AND on the backstroke.  It turns out that
this generates plenty of lift (as can be observed simply by watching a
bumblebee) and scientists now *do* understand how sufficient lift is
generated.

It seems that D.A.R.E. officials are pretty backward in their scientific
knowledge.

-Pete Zakel
 ([p h z] at [cadence.com] or ..!uunet!cadence!phz)

"SCCS, the source motel!  Programs check in and never check out!"

                                        -Ken Thompson