Martha Kearney

The mystery of the waggle-dance

Martha Kearney is entranced by Tania Munz's new biography – and by the waggle-dance of the honeybee

issue 25 June 2016

The Dancing Bees is a romantic title, evoking fantasy and fairy tale rather than scientific rigour, but actually this book is a story of fearsome determination. It is a biography of Karl von Frisch, who discovered the language of the honeybee, but Tania Munz’s account is much more besides, as it reveals the scientist’s struggle for survival under the Nazi regime.

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