jtotheizzoe: Getting your “buzz” on … That’s a bee on a coffee flower. Normally, that wouldn’t be worth commenting about. It’s just another bee getting a snack. Except that coffee flowers and a handful of other plants might use caffeine-laced nectar in order to draw bees back like Starbucks-addicts. Plants produce chemicals like caffeine (along with nicotine, rubber, cocaine and a host of other chemicals) as self-defense mechanisms. If a bee mainlined the caffeine present in the normal plant tissues, it would be poisoned to death. But the low levels present in some nectar might be just enough to give it an addictive buzz and bring it back for more. Read more about the researchers who are studying this at The New York Times. More bee/flower goodness on YouTube here.
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jtotheizzoe:

Getting your “buzz” on …

That’s a bee on a coffee flower. Normally, that wouldn’t be worth commenting about. It’s just another bee getting a snack. Except that coffee flowers and a handful of other plants might use caffeine-laced nectar in order to draw bees back like Starbucks-addicts.

Plants produce chemicals like caffeine (along with nicotine, rubber, cocaine and a host of other chemicals) as self-defense mechanisms. If a bee mainlined the caffeine present in the normal plant tissues, it would be poisoned to death. But the low levels present in some nectar might be just enough to give it an addictive buzz and bring it back for more.

Read more about the researchers who are studying this at The New York Times. More bee/flower goodness on YouTube here.

The not-so-complicated relationship between Robert Downey Jr. and caffeine.

“It’s Friday evening, and we’re all in a side room at a restaurant in Santa Monica … And every few minutes the (box-office) estimates go up … And I’m going crazy because I’ve had 25 Cokes and three cappuccinos.” (x)

(via fuckyeahrdj)

Source: iwantcupcakes