Bees have aided in Scientific discoveries

It would seem there is indeed a similarity between both the human brain and the 'thinking' of a swarm of bees. This is most obvious when bees are in 'house-hunting' mode.
P. Kirk Visscher at the University of California, has been studying these behaviours in bees and noticed the similarities.

If a suitable home is found then a scout bee will return to the colony and do an elaborate dance over and over, sharing all the information on the his chosen spot, such as location, distance from present colony etc. This encourages other scouts bees used in scientific work to visit the site and do inspections of their own.
If more than one location is found the other scout bee will do a dance of it's own, naturally a decision must be made as to which location is most suitable. The sender scout will give a short buzz and butt her head against the scout doing the dance, effectively telling him to stop.

Scientists have likened these similarities to behaviours noticed in monkeys in which similar studies were done. The difference being that that the response in the monkey's brain was witnessd by its behaviour.
The conclusion is that further study may shed more light on neuron activity in the brain.

Bees saving themselves with the help of science

The decline of the bee population worldwide is no longer news to anyone. Every community from science to agriculture and the man on the street is aware of the rapid decline in the number of bees. The cause for this fall off in numbers is subject of many a heated debate. But science has finally enlisted the help of the bees to see if it is possible to track the cause. Tiny micro-chip like sensors are being mounted on the heads of bees which are then being left to do what comes naturally as the sensor tracks their movements and the conditions they find themselves in.