Karl von Frisch

Karl von Frisch was born on November 20, 1886, in Vienna into an eminent medical family. Studying medicine and zoology at the University of Vienna and University of Munich under Richard von Hertwig, Frisch conducted revolutionary experiments on sensory physiology in animals.

He proved that fish could hear and distinguish colors, but his epoch-making triumph was decoding the communication of honeybees. Through observation hives, Frisch demonstrated that foraging worker bees communicate the precise distance and compass direction to flower sources using the circular round dance and figure-eight 'waggle dance'. In 1973, he shared the Nobel Prize with Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen.