This dispute is just one of many such little-known events; for example, another debate has been raging for centuries over who invented the symbol ... social science or politics. Mathematics ...

"Maths and science are very much seen ... "Maths involves creating symbols and putting them together to represent the real world," he said. Most students only experience maths in the abstract ...

They found that bees can link symbols to numbers, and even do basic maths. Researchers at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, trained honeybees to match characters to specific amounts.