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Study Claims Cellphones Implicated In Bee Loss

krou passes along word from Telegraph.co.uk that researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim that they have proven mobile phones could explain Colony Collapse Disorder. "They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behavior and productivity of bees in two hives — one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two 15-minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed. After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey. The queen bee in the 'mobile' hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive. They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen." We've talked about the honeybee problem before. Today's article quotes a British bee specialist who dismisses talk of cellphone radiation having anything to do with the problem.

3 of 542 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This crap gives science a bad reputation by ckaminski · · Score: 1, Troll

    We have some. Quackery, Snake Oil, religion, etc.

  2. Don't know about bees, but certainly this shows... by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 0, Troll

    I tend to think that CCD is a combination of several accumulated stress vectors, including pesticides and ticks and the fact that many bees are trucked around the countryside.

    But this does show that cell phones can disrupt living systems. That cell phone radiation can disrupt cellular activity is well established (well, among those anyway, who aren't living in denial due to reality being hard to live with re their cell phone usage. "It can't be true, because if it is then I would be both inconvenienced and wrong, and neither condition is acceptable, so I will argue until I am blue in the face!") A profound truth is that many people stop developing mentally by around the age of about ten.

    Here's a study which details a fair bit of what was known a few years ago. . .

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/12893533/The-Ecolog-Study

    Also, Robert O. Becker's book, Cross Currents is a good collection and summary of what is known about the subject. You can pick up a used copy on Amazon for about four dollars plus postage.

    -FL

  3. Re:Independent studies warranted by rainmouse · · Score: 0, Troll
    A famous politician tried something like this, forcing the unemployed into newly created jobs in construction, farming and building his countries infrastructure, though he also stipulated that those still refusing or unable to find work would end up drafted into the army. Unsurprisingly most of them found jobs. I'm trying to remember the name of this politician again, what was it? Oh yes Adolf Hitler.

    Is that who you would like to be?