MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

MIT's Building 20: The Magical Incubator Story, Anecdote, or Reminiscence

Honeybees in the Plywood Palace

Robert A. Gahl
bobgahl@tcbi.com

In 1972, I was studying the "Shaking Dance" of honeybee workers in Building 20-E. This research, sponsored by the Research Laboratory of Electronics under the gentle guidance of Professor Larry Frishkopf, required a non-air conditioned building. My self-designed observation beehives lost heat easily since the frames were oriented vertically instead of horizontally.

I usually had to observe the dances on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War was still being waged and Nixon had just bombed Cambodia. Since Building 20 was also being used by the campus ROTC, the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) decided to strike and occupy the building. When I went there to do my work, the Campus Police graciously allowed me to enter the building. On the way in, they asked me to unleash some of the bees into the building in hopes of rousting the strikers out of the occupied offices.

I was unable to comply because most of those bees were tediously color-coded on their thoraxes so I could tell how old they were. Releasing the bees would have cost a year of data. Eventually, I published my data in the Journal of Animal Behaviour which helped me gain admission to Medical School.

I believe no other building on campus could have afforded me the opportunity to do this important research.