New Scientist Blogs

Monday, April 16, 2007

Are cellphones wiping out bees?

The bizarre and sudden vanishing of bees that started in the US, and has now spread to Europe, has left apiarists stumped as to the cause. Now, researchers in Germany have come up with an explanation that, in the absence of a better theory, will probably be seriously considered : cellphones.

Radiation from mobile phones is interfering with bees' navigation systems, preventing the insects from finding their way back to the hive, according to a preliminary study by Jochen Khun's team at Landau University in Germany.

If it is true, it's difficult to know what can be done about it, since cellphones are now so ubiquitous. But colony collapse disorder (CCD), as the mystery bee demise is known, is a serious problem, with as many as 80% of bees affected in some parts of the US. It occurs when all the hive's occupants suddenly disappear (nobody knows where) leaving just the queen, her eggs and a few immature workers. And it has huge implications for agriculture because bee-performed pollination is vital for most of the world's crops.

Previous studies have shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines, although the areas around power lines also provide an untouched haven for the creatures.

What's to be done ??? any suggestions?

Gaia Vince, Environment editor

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/. Acesso em 10/05/08.

(leitor 5)

Coming from a beekeeper family, being an electronics engineer and a nature lover, one's immediate reaction is: bees are a lot more useful than cellphones. Without bees plant polination is drastically reduced. Furthermore honey is a far healthier sweetener than sugar or artificial sweeteners. Hence for the sake teenager's blogging, we are destroying one of our essential health and agricultural partners. Having studied bees' navigation system, which is more sophisticated than we realise, it is unlikely that bees "refuse" to get back to their hives, with a cellphone nearby, they simply loose their way owing to carrier wave emanating from transmission towers, take too long to find it and they either caught by birds or die from exhaustion, having consumed the nectar they collected. The problem is simple, commercial forces do not care what they destroy as long as they can sell their ware and the average ignorant youngster and non technical person simply does not care. There are numerous articles in technical magazines about the effect of electro-magnetic fields on human and animal tissue. The plain fact is that we still do not even know the damage that maybe caused by high voltage 50/60Hz sinewaves. This can be further complicated by LV equipment that generates square waves which contains numerous harmonics. Though there is strong evidence that certain frequencies can kill viruses, in vivo, by bringing them into resonance which causes them to explode (a method which has been suppresseed by the AMA and FDA on behalf of the pharmafia for a half a century)we do not know what frequencies in what strength are in fact carcinogens, neither do we know what interaction there is between various chemicals and frequencies on cells. Sciences per se are too isolated and findings are often suppressed in the name of profits or political gains. A typical example is cheap flights for football hooligans when we are heading towards an energy crises and global warming. The plain fact is that a globe which is made for 2 billion sensible people is heading for a herd of 10 billion, which wants many times more in everything today than they need, without caring or understanding how it will affect tomorrow. Bees are only one of the victims. By the look of it, the only contribution humans made to this planet is an ever accelerated destruction of it. No matter how movements like the Greenpeace try to warn people, the lemmings are just heading towards the cliff edge.

COMMENTS:

( Leitor 1)

Even if this is true, some bees will survive, and thrive in the abscence of their brethren.

By Anonymous on April 16, 2007 3:16 PM

( leitor 2 )

I would think it more likely that bees have finally evolved to the point of being able to unionize and fight unfair labor practices dictated by their queens. They're on strike!

By Anonymous on April 16, 2007 3:25 PM

( leitor 3 )

i have an idea, give the bees cell phones then they can contact the queen and find their hives! i am totally serious.

By Anonymous on April 17, 2007 4:02 AM

( leitor 4 )

If a link to mobile phones and bees is proven, then yes i think we should be worried, bees play an extreamly important role in the pollination process and the eco system as a whole. Albert Einstein once calculated that if bees suddenly ceased to exist, mankind could not survive for more than 4 years!! a worrying thought?

By Anonymous on April 16, 2007 10:17 PM

Birkozo

By birkozo on April 22, 2007 9:06 PM