Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery

[Allhallowsday]

Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery 
DENVER — It has been one of the great murder mysteries of the garden: what is killing off the honeybees?

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered "colony collapse." Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.

Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two.

A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One.

Exactly how that combination kills bees remains uncertain, the scientists said — a subject for the next round of research. But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised... 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html?_r=1  

[Mr_Vindictive]

Thanks for posting this!  I've read numerous articles over the past few years about this.  Most chalked it up to increased cell phone usage actually.  Good to know it may be something else!

[Rev. Powell]

There's been a lot of buzz about this story.

[3mnkids]

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm

A cheer must have gone up at Bayer on Thursday when a front-page New York Times article, under the headline "Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery," described how a newly released study pinpoints a different cause for the die-off: "a fungus tag-teaming with a virus." The study, written in collaboration with Army scientists at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center outside Baltimore, analyzed the proteins of afflicted bees using a new Army software system. The Bayer pesticides, however, go unmentioned.

What the Times article did not explore -- nor did the study disclose -- was the relationship between the study's lead author, Montana bee researcher Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, and Bayer Crop Science. In recent years Bromenshenk has received a significant research grant from Bayer to study bee pollination. Indeed, before receiving the Bayer funding, Bromenshenk was lined up on the opposite side: He had signed on to serve as an expert witness for beekeepers who brought a class-action lawsuit against Bayer in 2003. He then dropped out and received the grant.

very interesting    

[Joe the Destroyer]

Thanks for posting this!  I've read numerous articles over the past few years about this.  Most chalked it up to increased cell phone usage actually.  Good to know it may be something else!

Perhaps it's time the cell phone usage theory made a bee-line.

[Mr. DS]

This story stings me.

[Rev. Powell]

This story stings me.

It shouldn't, honey.

[venomx]

Wait... So M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening (2008) never happened?

If you have seen the movie you'll get the honey bee joke.

[Allhallowsday]

You should all BEE more COMBsiderate.

[Mr. DS]

You should all BEE more COMBsiderate.

You're right, we should BEEhave a bit more on this board.  Stop pollen our legs...

[Rev. Powell]

Hive got a feeling these puns are just going to keep coming.

[Allhallowsday]

You should all BEE more COMBsiderate.

You're right, we should BEEhave a bit more on this board.  Stop pollen our legs...

Y'mean BeeHIVE... think ERIC IDLE, crucified...

Hive got a feeling these puns are just going to keep coming.

Yes, these puns will keep COMBing... 

[Mr. DS]

You should all BEE more COMBsiderate.

You're right, we should BEEhave a bit more on this board.  Stop pollen our legs...

Y'mean BeeHIVE... think ERIC IDLE, crucified...

Hive got a feeling these puns are just going to keep coming.

Yes, these puns will keep COMBing...  

You know AHD, just BEEcause you think you're cool doesn't mean you have to SWARM on me.