Not that long ago, it seemed that every other Speculist entry had something to do with some amazing mouse-related achievement. Mice were everywhere: helping with breakthrough cancer treatments, showing us how to grow new neurons, baffling scientists with their appetite hormones, and becoming more and more and more valuable as they live longer and longer.

But here lately, it's all been about the bees. First they were solving puzzles, then they were finding land mines, and now in BoingBoing, we read this:

Scientists have demonstrated that honeybees can recognize human faces, sometimes for days. Adrian Dyer of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues trained the bees to associate photographs of particular human faces with a sugary treat. Later, five bees were able to pick out the right face from a group of others. The results of the study, reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology, may eventually aid the development of computer vision systems.

Stephen recently posted a speculation that the world's first true artificial intelligence might be a modified, oversized rat brain. Possibly. But I wouldn't rule out a highly modified swarm of bees.