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About the 1963 Birmingham Bombing

Birmingham, Alabama, and the Civil

Rights

Movement in 1963

The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shutterworth. Tensions became high when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) became involved in a campaign to register African American to vote in Birmingham.

On Sunday, 15th September, 1963, a white man was seen getting out of a white and turquoise Chevrolet car and placing a box under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Soon afterwards, at 10.22 a.m., the bomb exploded killing Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14). The four girls had been attending Sunday school classes at the church. Twenty-three other people were also hurt by the blast.

Civil rights activists blamed George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, for the killings. Only a week before the bombing he had told the New York Times that to stop integration Alabama needed a "few first-class funerals."

A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On 8th October, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite.

The case was unsolved until Bill Baxley was elected attorney general of Alabama. He requested the original Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the case and discovered

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that the organization had accumulated a great deal of evidence against Chambliss that had not been used in the original trial.

In November, 1977 Chambliss was tried once again for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Now aged 73, Chambliss was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on 29th October, 1985.

On 17th May, 2000, the FBI announced that the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing had been carried out by the Ku Klux Klan splinter group, the Cahaba Boys. It was claimed that four men, Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry had been responsible for the crime. Cash was dead but Blanton and Cherry were arrested and Blanton has since been tried and convicted.

Six Dead After Church Bombing

Blast Kills Four Children; Riots Follow

Two Youths Slain; State Reinforces Birmingham Police

United Press International September 16, 1963

Birmingham, Sept. 15 -- A bomb hurled from a passing car blasted a crowded Negro church today, killing four girls in their Sunday school classes and triggering outbreaks of violence that left two more persons dead in the streets.

Two Negro youths were killed in outbreaks of shooting seven hours after the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed, and a third was wounded.

As darkness closed over the city hours later, shots crackled sporadically in the Negro sections. Stones smashed into cars driven by whites.

Five Fires Reported Police reported at least five fires in Negro business establishments tonight. A official said some are being set, including one at a mop factory touched off by gasoline thrown on the building. The fires were brought under control and there were no injuries.

Meanwhile, NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins wired President Kennedy that unless the Federal Government offers more than "picayune and piecemeal aid against this type of

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bestiality" Negroes will "employ such methods as our desperation may dictate in defense of the lives of our people."

Reinforced police units patrolled the city and 500 battle-dressed National Guardsmen stood by at an armory.

City police shot a 16-year-old Negro to death when he refused to heed their commands to halt after they caught him stoning cars. A 13-year-old Negro boy was shot and killed as he rode his bicycle in a suburban area north of the city.

Police Battle Crowd Downtown streets were deserted after dark and police urged white and Negro parents to keep their children off the streets.

Thousands of hysterical Negroes poured into the area around the church this morning and police fought for two hours, firing rifles into the air to control them.

When the crowd broke up, scattered shootings and stonings erupted through the city during the afternoon and tonight.

The Negro youth killed by police was Johnny Robinson, 16. They said he fled down an alley when they caught him stoning cars. They shot him when he refused to halt.

The 13-year-old boy killed outside the city was Virgil Ware. He was shot at about the same time as Robinson.

Shortly after the bombing police broke up a rally of white students protesting the desegregation of three Birmingham schools last week. A motorcade of militant adult segregationists apparently en route to the student rally was disbanded.

Police patrols, augmented by 300 State troopers sent into the city by Gov. George C. Wallace, quickly broke up all gatherings of white and Negroes. Wallace sent the troopers and ordered 500 National Guardsmen to stand by at Birmingham armories.

King arrived in the city tonight and went into a conference with Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a leader in the civil rights fight in Birmingham.

The City Council held an emergency meeting to discuss safety measures for the city, but rejected proposals for a curfew.

Dozens of persons were injured when the bomb went off in the church, which held 400 Negroes at the time, including 80

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children. It was Young Day at the church.

A few hours later, police picked up two white men, questioned them about the bombing and released them.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wired President Kennedy from Atlanta that he was going to Birmingham to plead with Negroes to "remain non-violent."

But he said that unless "immediate Federal steps are taken" there will be "in Birmingham and Alabama the worst racial holocaust this Nation has ever seen."

Dozens of survivors, their faces dripping blood from the glass that flew out of the church's stained glass windows, staggered around the building in a cloud of white dust raised by the explosion. The blast crushed two nearby cars like toys and blew out windows blocks away.

Negroes stoned cars in other sections of Birmingham and police exchanged shots with a Negro firing wild shotgun blasts two blocks from the church. It took officers two hours to disperse the screaming, surging crowd of 2,000 Negroes who ran to the church at the sound of the blast.

At least 20 persons were hurt badly enough by the blast to be treated at hospitals. Many more, cut and bruised by flying debris, were treated privately.

(The Associated Press reported that among the injured in subsequent shooting were a white man injured by a Negro. Another white man was wounded by a Negro who attempted to rob him, according to police.)

Mayor Albert Boutwell, tears streaming down his cheeks, announced the city had asked for help.

"It is a tragic event," Boutwell said. "It is just sickening that a few individuals could commit such a horrible atrocity. The occurrence of such a thing has so gravely concerned the public..." His voice broke and he could not go on.

Boutwell and Police Chief Jamie Moore requested the State assistance in a telegram to Wallace.

"While the situation appears to be well under control of federal law enforcement officers at this time, the possibility of further

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trouble exists," Boutwell and Moore said in their telegram.

President Kennedy, yachting off Newport, R.I., was notified by radio-telephone and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered his chief civil rights troubleshooter, Burke Marshall, to Birmingham. At least 25 FBI agents, including bomb experts from Washington, were being rushed in.

City Police Inspector W.J. Haley said as many as 15 sticks of dynamite must have been used.

"We have talked to witnesses who say they saw a car drive by and then speed away just before the bomb hit," he said.

In Montgomery, Wallace said he had a similar report and said the descriptions of the car's occupants did not make clear their race. But he served notice "on those responsible that every law enforcement agency of this State will be used to apprehend them."

The bombing was the 21st in Birmingham in eight years, and the first to kill. None of the bombings have been solved.

As police struggled to hold back the crowd, the blasted church's pastor, the Rev. John H. Cross, grabbed a megaphone and walked back and forth, telling the crowd: "The police are doing everything they can. Please go home."

"The Lord is our shepherd," he sobbed. "We shall not want."

The only stained glass window in the church that remained in its frame showed Christ leading a group of little children. The face of Christ was blown out.

After the police dispersed the hysterical crowds, workmen with pickaxes went into the wrecked basement of the church. Parts of brightly painted children's furniture were strewn about in one Sunday School room, and blood stained the floors. Chunks of concrete the size of footballs littered the basement.

The bomb apparently went off in an unoccupied basement room and blew down the wall, sending stone and debris flying like shrapnel into a room where children were assembling for closing prayers following Sunday School. Bibles and song books lay shredded and scattered through the church.

In the main sanctuary upstairs, which holds about 500 persons, the pulpit and Bible were covered with pieces of stained glass.

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One of the dead girls was decapitated. The coroner's office identified the dead as Denise McNair, 11; Carol Robertson, 14; Cynthia Wesley, 14, and Addie Mae Collins, 10.

As the crowd came outside watched the victims being carried out, one youth broke away and tried to touch one of the blanket-covered forms.

"This is my sister," he cried. "My God, she's dead." Police took the hysterical boy away.

Mamie Grier, superintendent of the Sunday School, said when the bomb went off "people began screaming, almost stampeding" to get outside. The wounded walked around in a daze, she said.

One of the injured taken to a hospital was a white man. Many others cut by flying glass and other debris were not treated at hospitals.

Fourth in Four Weeks It was the fourth bombing in four weeks in Birmingham, and the third since the current school desegregation crisis came to a boil Sept. 4.

Desegregation of schools in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tuskegee was finally brought about last Wednesday when President Kennedy federalized the National Guard. Some of the Guardsmen in Birmingham are still under Federal orders. Wallace said the ones he alerted today were units of the Guard "not now federalized."

The City of Birmingham has offered a $52,000 reward for the arrest of the bombers, and Wallace today offered another $5,000.

Dr. King Berates Wallace But Dr. King wired Wallace that "the blood of four little children ... is on your hands. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder."

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How to Recognize and Report Child Abuse

By atika, eHow Contributor e-How Website

One of the worst events in life has to be the abuse or exploitation of a child.

These steps will help recognize these occupancies and bring justice to the

culprits.

Instructions

Things You will Need:

• Phone numbers for child abuse hotlines and the police. • Keen eyes and ears to tell when something negative is going on.

1. Look for unusual bruises or abrasions on child or baby. For babies and children who have not acquired speech, bring them to a pediatrician to be checked out.

2. Notice if behavior of an older child seems different. If they have become quiet and withdrawn it may indicate something negative is going on.

3. In older children, sit them in a quiet area, get down to their level, maintain eye contact and ask pertinent questions. "Has someone been hurting you?" Try to remain

calm and gentle. Assure child they are not in any trouble or to blame for anything

that may have occurred. 4. Notify Child Protective Services or the Child Abuse Hotline immediately. Or call

the police. 5. If you see someone verbally or physically abusing a child: at the store, on the

street or out your window, notify the authorities at once.

Tips & Warnings

• Children are people too and they must not have their sacred trust in adults violated in any way. All children deserve to live and be in a safe environment. All children must have their basic needs met: food, shelter, clothing, education and love.

• When someone new moves into your neighborhood the police are required to tell you if they are a registered sex offender.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2118152_recognize-report-child-abuse.html#ixzz13KVJ61N4

Child Abuse Reporting Training

By Steve Glenn, eHow Contributor updated: July 23, 2010

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Child Abuse Reporting Training

The primary reason for reporting child abuse is to rescue a child from the

potentiality of hurt, harm and danger. Child abuse not only affects the child, but

also the entire community. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every individual

who suspects child abuse to report it to the appropriate authorities.

Training

1. Individuals interested in training for child abuse reporting can take a mini-course at a small community college or local child agency or an online course such as Mandated Reporter Training. The course is usually 60 to 90 minutes, self-paced and interactive. A pre-test and post-test, consisting of 13 questions, must be completed in order to obtain a certificate of completion.

Types

2. Child abuse reporting training begins by teaching individuals how to identify the types of child abuse, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. Physical abuse may be occurring when unexplained bruises, cuts and scars appear on parts of a child's body. Sexual abuse is likely to be happening when a child shows an unusual inclination toward sexual activities at an inappropriate age. A child may have a problem touching others indecently or displaying the private parts of her own body. Emotional abuse may be occurring when a child is withdrawn and shows low self-esteem. Signs of neglect may be occurring when a child's hygiene or clothing becomes an issue.

Causes

3. Individuals interested in child abuse reporting training learn about the possible causes that lead to child abuse. A number of conditions can lead to child abuse, such as domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, undiagnosed mental illness, overwhelming stress, strong-willed children and poor parenting skills. These situations represent an uncontrolled

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environment, a condition in which all levels of abuse can occur. Individuals with an understanding of causes are in position to suggest some kind of preventive information to the authorities or to possible abusers.

Recognition

4. Child abuse reporting training also involves recognizing signs of child abuse wherever it may occur. For example, signs of abuse can be suspected when a child is too passive or aggressive or hostile toward teachers and classmates. This might mean that emotional abuse is occurring at home. Also when a child is always fearful and afraid of everyone, including his parents or guardians, some form of abuse could be happening within the child's life. Recognizing these signs and others could help deliver a child from a terrifying life.

Reporting

5. Child abuse training teaches individuals how to contact the appropriate authorities when abuse is suspected. For example, individuals can contact the Department of Human Services or other small agencies within the community that manage child-related programs. The National hotline as of 2010 is (800) 4ACHILD or (800-422-4453). Individuals should call immediately if child abuse is expected. This rapid response could prevent further abuse of that child.

Read more: Child Abuse Reporting Training | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6766741_child-abuse-reporting-training.html#ixzz13KV0zXFi

Major Features of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title I

Barred unequal application of voter registration requirements, but did not abolish literacy

tests, which were sometimes used to disqualify both American blacks and poor white

voters.

"It shall be the duty of the judge designated pursuant to this section to assign the case for

hearing at the earliest practicable date and to cause the case to be in every way

expedited."

Title II

Outlawed discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public

accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; exempted private clubs without

defining the term "private."

Title III

Encouraged the desegregation of public schools and authorized the U. S. Attorney

General to file suits to force desegregation.

Title VI

Title VI of the Act prevents discrimination by government agencies that receive federal

funding. If an agency is found in violation of Title VI, that agency can lose its federal

funding.

Title VII

Title VII of the Act, codified as Subchapter VI of Chapter 21 of Title 42 of the United

States Code, et seq., outlaws discrimination in employment in any business on the basis

of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Title VII also prohibits retaliation against

employees who oppose such unlawful discrimination. The Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces Title VII. The EEOC investigates, mediates,

and sometimes files lawsuits on behalf of employees. Title VII also provides that an

individual can bring a private lawsuit. An individual must file a complaint of

discrimination with the EEOC within 180 days of learning of the discrimination or the

individual may lose the right to file a lawsuit. Title VII only applies to employers who

employ 15 or more employees for more than 19 weeks in the current or preceding

calendar year.

In the late 1970s, courts began holding that sexual harassment is also prohibited under the

Act. Chrapliwy v. Uniroyal is a notable Title VII case relating to sexual harassment that

was decided in favor of the plaintiffs. In 1986 the Supreme Court held in Meritor Savings

Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986), that sexual harassment is sex discrimination and is

prohibited by Title VII. Title VII has been supplemented with legislation prohibiting

pregnancy, age, and disability discrimination.

Title VII does not apply to three types of employers:

• Federal government;

• Religious groups performing work connected to the group's activities, including

associated education institutions;

• Bona fide nonprofit private membership organizations.

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The Honey Bee Dance Language

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Honey bee dancing, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of

their biology, is also one of the most fascinating behaviors

in animal life. Performed by a worker bee that has returned

to the honey comb with pollen or nectar, the dances, in

essence, constitute a language that “tells” other workers

where the food is. By signaling both distance and direction

with particular movements, the worker bee uses the dance

language to recruit and direct other workers in gathering

pollen and nectar.

The late Karl von Frisch, a professor of zoology at the Uni-

versity of Munich in Germany, is credited with interpret-

ing the meaning of honey bee dance movements. He and

his students carried out decades of research in which they

carefully described the different components of each dance.

Their experiments typically used glass-walled observation

hives and paint-marked bee foragers. First, they trained the

foragers to find food at sources placed at known distances

from the colony. When the bees returned from gathering

food from those sources, von Frisch and his students care-

fully measured both the duration and angle of the dances

the foragers performed to recruit other bees to help gather

food. Their findings led them to the concept of a dance lan-

guage. Von Frisch’s work eventually earned him the Nobel

Prize for Medicine in 1973.

The concept of a honey bee dance language, however, has

had its skeptics.

Several scientists, among them Adrian M. Wenner, profes-

sor emeritus of natural history at the University of Califor-

nia at Santa Barbara, have a different idea. They believe

the dance exists, but they are not certain it communicates

the location of a food source. These critics have argued that

floral odors on a forager’s body are the primary cues that

enable the recruit-bees to locate new food sources. Many

experiments have directly tested this alternate hypothesis

and demonstrated the importance of floral odors in food

location. In fact, von Frisch held this same opinion before

he changed his mind and developed the theory of the dance

language.

The biological reality probably lies somewhere between

these two extremes. The most commonly accepted view

is that recruits go to the area depicted in the dance, but

then home in on the flower patch using odor cues. Indeed,

researchers have built a robotic honey bee that is able to

perform the dance language and recruit foragers to spe-

cific locations. But the robot is unable to properly recruit

foragers to a food source unless it carries an odor cue on

its surface. Nevertheless, it is clear that honey bees use the

distance and directional information communicated by the

dance language.

When an experienced forager returns to the colony with

a load of nectar or pollen that is sufficiently nutritious to

warrant a return to the source, she performs a dance on the

surface of the honey comb to tell other foragers where the

food is. The dancer “spells out” two items of information—

distance and direction—to the target food patch. Recruits

then leave the hive to find the nectar or pollen.

Distance and direction are presented in separate compo-

nents of the dance.

Distance

When a food source is very close to the hive (less than 50

meters), a forager performs a round dance (Figure 1). She

does so by running around in narrow circles, suddenly re-

versing direction to her original course. She may repeat the

dance several times at the same location or move to another

location on the comb to repeat it. After the round dance has

ended, she often distributes food to the bees following her.

A round dance, therefore, communicates distance (“close

to the hive,” in this example), but not direction.

Food sources that are at intermediate distances, between

50 and 150 meters from the hive, are described by the

sickle dance. This dance is crescent-shaped and

represents a transitional dance between the round dance and

a waggle dance.

The waggle dance (Figure 2), or wag-tail dance, is per-

formed by bees foraging at food sources that are more

than 150 meters from the hive. This dance, unlike the

round dance, communicates both distance and direction.

A bee that performs a waggle dance runs straight ahead

for a short distance, returns in a semicircle to the starting

point, runs again through the straight course, then makes

a semicircle in the opposite direction to complete a full

figure-eight circuit. While running the straight-line course

of the dance, the bee’s body, especially the abdomen, wags

vigorously from side to side. This vibration of the body

produces a tail-wagging motion. At the same time, the bee

emits a buzzing sound, produced by wingbeats at a low au-

dio frequency of 250 to 300 hertz or cycles per second. The

Figure 1.

Round dance

Figure 2.

Waggle dance

Background Components of the dance language

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buzzing occurs in pulsebeats of about 20

milliseconds, delivered at a rate of about 30

per second.

While several variables of the waggle dance

relate to distance (such as dance “tempo” or the

duration of buzzing sounds), the duration of the

straight-run portion of the dance, measured in

seconds, is the simplest and most reliable in-

dicator of distance. As the distance to the food

source increases, the duration of the waggling

portion of the dance (the “waggle run”) also

increases. The relationship is roughly linear

(Figure 3). For example, a forager that per-

forms a waggle run that lasts 2.5 seconds

is recruiting for a food source located about

2,625 meters away.

Direction

Although the representation of distance in the

waggle dance is relatively straightforward, the

method of communicating direction is more

complicated. The orientation of the dancing

bee during the straight portion of her waggle dance indicates

the location of the food source relative to

the sun. The angle that the bee adopts, relative to vertical,

represents the angle to the flowers relative to the direction

of the sun outside the hive. In other words, the dancing

bee transposes the solar angle into the gravitational angle.

Figure 4 gives three examples: A forager recruiting to a

food source in the same direction as the sun will perform

a dance with the waggle-run portion traveling directly up-

ward on the honey comb. Conversely, if the food source

is located directly away from the sun, the straight run will

be performed vertically downward. If the food source is

60 degrees to the left of the sun, the waggle run will be

60 degrees to the left of vertical.

Figure 3.

The relationship of distance to waggle-run duration.

Figure 4. Waggle-run direction

Because directional information is given relative to the

sun’s position and not to a compass direction, a forager’s

dance for a particular resource will change during a day.

This is because the sun’s position moves during the day.

For example, a food source located due east will cause

foragers to dance approximately straight up in the morning

(because the sun rises in the east), but in the late after-

noon, the foragers will dance approximately straight down

(because the sun sets in the west). Thus, the location of the

sun is a key variable in interpreting the directional informa-

tion in the dance.

The sun’s position also is governed by geographic location

and time of year. The sun will always move from east to

west over the course of the day. However, above the Tropic

of Cancer, the sun will move from southeast to southwest,

whereas below the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun will move

from northeast to northwest. Within the tropics, the sun

may be located to the south or to the north, depending on

the time of year.

Thus, to translate the directional information contained

in the honey bee dance, one must know the angle of the

waggle run (with respect to gravity) and the compass

direction of the sun, which depends on location, date,

and time of day.

5200

4200

3200

2200

1200

200

Approximate function of distance

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Duration of the waggle run (seconds)

4/04—1M—JL/DC AG-646

E04-43976

Visit the Web site for the Apiculture program at North

Carolina State University to try out an interactive movie

that enables the user to change, in real time, a forager’s

dance, depending on the numerous variables that are

important for the bee’s communication of distance and

direction to recruits. The Web site is: http://entomology.

ncsu.edu/apiculture/Dance_tutorial.html

The honey bee dance language serves as a model of animal

communication in classroom situations at all levels. It is

one of the more intriguing behaviors in the animal king-

dom and solidifies honey bees as one of the most interest-

ing systems in biology.

Barth, F. G. 1982. Insects and Flowers: The Biology

of a Partnership. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press.

Frisch, Karl von. 1976. Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses,

and Language. Rev. ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University

Press.

Frisch, Karl von. 1967. The Dance Language and

Orientation of Bees. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap

Press of Harvard University Press.

Seeley, Thomas D. 1995. The Wisdom of the Hive: The Social

Physiology of Honey Bee Colonies. Cambridge, Mass.:

Harvard University Press.

Wenner, Adrian M., and Patrick H. Wells. 1990. Anatomy of a Controversy: The Question of a “Language” Among

Bees. New York: Columbia University Press.

Conclusion

References

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Honey Bee Genome Holds Clues to Social Behavior Science Daily (Oct. 24, 2006) — By studying the humble honey bee, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have come a step closer to understanding the molecular basis of social behavior in humans.

"The honey bee (Apis millifera) has been called a model system for social

behavior," said Saurabh Sinha, a professor of computer science and an

affiliate of the university's Institute for Genomic Biology. Using that model

system, Sinha led a team that searched the honey bee genome for clues

for social cues -- a form of bee pressure that can cause bees to change

jobs in response to needs of the hive.

"We want to learn how the honey bee society influences behavior in

individual honey bees," said Sinha, who is lead author of a paper that will

be posted online this week ahead of regular publication by the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "By studying the social

regulation of gene expression, we hope to extrapolate the biology to

humans."

Adult worker bees perform a number of tasks in the hive when they are

young, such as caring for eggs and larvae, and then shift to foraging for

nectar and pollen as they age. However, if the hive has a shortage of

foragers, some of the young nurse bees will switch jobs and become

foragers.

The job transition, whether triggered by age or social cues, involves

changes in thousands of genes in the honey bee brain; some genes turn

on, while others turn off.

Genes are switched on and off by short strings of DNA that lie close to the

gene. The strings serve as binding sites for particular molecules, called

transcription factors. For example, when the correct transcription factor

latches into the binding site, the gene may be switched on. If the

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transcription factor breaks away from the binding site, the gene is

switched off.

To search for genes that might play a role in social behavior, Sinha and his

colleagues used the newly sequenced honey bee genome to scan the

binding sites of transcription factors known to function in the development

of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) from a single cell to an adult.

A computer algorithm written by the researchers scanned nearly 3,000

genes. Statistical techniques were then used to investigate whether

particular transcription factors correlated with genes that were differentially

expressed (turned on or off) between nurse bees and foragers.

"We found five different transcription factors that showed a statistically

significant correlation with socially regulated genes," Sinha said. "It

appears that genes involved in nervous-system development in fruit flies

are re-used by nature for behavioral functions in adult honey bees."

Their findings, Sinha said, suggest that honey bees will be useful in

elucidating the mechanisms by which social factors regulate gene

expression in brains, including those of humans.

With Sinha, co-authors are computer science professor Chengxiang Zhai,

graduate student Xu Ling, and entomology professors Charles Whitfield

and Gene Robinson. The work was funded by the University of Illinois and

the National Science Foundation.

Think About Questions: Answer these and record the best and most

interesting answers on your Reading Circle Sheet. Be sure to provide the

resource info: ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2006)