THE TRAVELLING SALESMAN PROBLEM

Pre-satnav perambulation. The “Travelling Salesman Problem” or TSP is a long standing logic problem. The TSP calculates the shortest and most efficient routes between two or more necessary stops. Think how Amazon’s algorithms plan the routes of the grey vans. To work this out, a TSP calculation requires a very considerable amount of computing power. Not if you’re a bee though.

According to Dr Nigel Raine, from Royal Holloway’s school of biological sciences, “foraging bees solve travelling salesman problems every day. They visit flowers at multiple locations and, because bees use lots of energy to fly, they find a route which keeps flying to a minimum.”