MY LIFE IN JAPAN a blog from kyoto for friends and family

Marcus du Sautoy: There does seem to be evidence of that and I think that's why symmetry for us is something that we call beautiful because we are attracted to it. I have the example of the bumble bee, the bumble bee has very bad vision and can't judge distances, is colour blind, but what it can pick out is something with symmetry -=-- it's very sensitive to that. Because that is likely to be a flower with nutrition so the bee is drawn to that flower and the flower similarly needs the bee and so the more symmetrical a flower the more likely it is to draw the bee. There is evidence that the nectar of a more symmetrical flower is sweeter and there seems to be this correspondence between symmetry and things that are good for us.

bumble bee rock.