(Posted October 1, 2001)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Jay Hosler, assistant professor of biology, will talk about how honey bees use their sense of smell to find nectar-laden flowers in the Bookend Seminar lecture "Bees and Brain Gas" at 4:30 p.m., Oct. 10 in 202 Good Hall on the Juniata campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The Bookend Seminar series features afternoon lectures each month by Juniata College faculty.

Hosler's lecture will focus on how bees use their sense of smell to find, and more importantly, remember where high-yielding flowers are. In order to process the flower aromas into their brains, bees use a gaseous substance called nitric oxide as a transmitter of smell into memory.

Hosler's research has implications for insects, animals and human beings because vertebrates and invertebrates all use nitric oxide to process odors. In recent research, Hosler has blocked the transmission of nitric oxide into the brains of bees and found that bees cannot tell the difference between odors they have learned previously and odors they have not learned.

Hosler joined Juniata's faculty in 1999, coming from Ohio State University's Rothenbuhler Honey Bee Research Laboratory where he was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow.


Hosler earned a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from DePauw University in 1989. He continued his education by earning a doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame in 1995.

Hosler's research focuses on the study of olfactory processing in honeybees. Hosler also is a cartoonist and comic book writer-illustrator. He recently published a compilation of his comic book series "Clan Apis," which follows the life of a single honeybee. He currently is working on a new comic book, "Sandwalk Adventures."

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.