What's killing the bees?

By now, everyone has heard of the bee problem: bees in North America and Europe are suffering huge losses, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Since 2006, beekeepers have been finding their colonies diminished, leaving fewer bees per hive. We rely on honeybees to pollinate a lot of the food we eat, and scientists and beekeepers have been trying to figure out what is causing the collapse.

There have been a lot of news stories about potential causes--pesticides, parasites, disease...all of these things kill bees but no one has really tracked down the root of the problem. Neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that seem to be harming bees, were banned recently by the EU for 2 years. However, that might not be the real culprit. There was an article in Time recently that gave a nice overview of the possible causes, and I'm going to summarize that here.

Neonicotinoids (pesticides)  
Evidence for:        
-present on pollen and bees
-highly toxic to bees            
-can be absorbed from the soil
-persist for years after application

Evidence against:
-no direct link to CCD
-France has restricted use since 1999, and still has CCD
-Australia uses, and doesn't have high CCD rates

Varroa mite  (parasite)                                      
Evidence for:
-demonstrated bee killer

Evidence against:
 -not all CCD hives have mites

Fungal infections                                                   
Evidence for:
-known to kill bees              

Evidence against:
-not all CCD hives have infections

While pesticides no doubt are harmful to bees, we don't have enough evidence to conclude that pesticides cause CCD. Still, it's enough to make me want to eat organic. The other scary thing to think about is the fact that North America's native bees, such as bumblebees, have no keepers replenishing their colonies or taking care of them Bumblebees are also dying off in massive numbers. Why???

There is a lot more information out there on this topic. Here are a few links:

http://www.xerces.org/neonicotinoids-and-bees/
http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572

Sinkholes

What's up with all the sinkholes lately? I don't know a lot about them, but this is terrifying: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23793499

New mammal species: the olinguito

You may have heard by now, but a new species of mammal was announced yesterday by the Smithsonian. It is called the olinguito, or Bassaricyon neblina. It is related to raccoons and escaped scientists' notice for a long time because everyone thought it was just another olingo, a small mammal native to Central and South America. But no, the museum specimens were misidentified, and it turns out it is not an olingo. It also happens to be extremely cute. 

UPDATE: the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a meme surrounding the olingo. http://nmnh.tumblr.com/

Cool insect

My mom took this photo in northern Minnesota. Anyone know what it is?

Ecologists vs. the rest of the world

Last week I was at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting. If it isn't obvious by the name, this is a conference for ecologists. It's a week long conference of talks, posters and networking/socializing. If you are in any other field, you have probably been to conferences where people dress up nicely. Not so at ESA. In fact, if you are dressed up in say, a suit, you will stick out like a sore thumb. It's slightly more acceptable for the people moderating sessions or doing special presentations to be dressed up, but in general people are wearing shorts, tank tops or t-shirts, and sandals of the Teva, Choco or Birkenstock variety.

Now, I'm all for being comfortable. I wore flip flops for most of the week because I had blisters on my heels after one day of wearing "nice" flats. However, I think there is nothing wrong with looking nice at an annual meeting where you are presenting research, even if it is a bunch of ecologists who are uncomfortable being inside for too long. Realistically, there is no reason to wear pants that convert to shorts to a conference, unless your field site is right outside the convention center and you might need to check in after a few talks.

My first year of grad school some of the other grad students and I decided to start "Formal Friday," a grad student answer to "Casual Friday" in the workplace. We all look like crap most of the week, so we decided to dress up once a week. This consisted of maybe a button-down top, pants for the guys and a skirt or casual dress for the ladies. It didn't last the whole year, but we did have a Formal Party where people were supposed to come in spiffy clothes. It's fun, especially since we don't have many occasions to dress up given that we work outside most of the time. Conferences could be another place for ecologists to have fun dressing up. I propose that we ecologists look spiffy more often.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of bags to hold conference programs. Usually everyone walks around with the same matching ESA bag and during lunch breaks, all the conference-goers scatter around town with their matching bags. This year there were a lot of backpacks, purses, and other tote bags being used. I approve. We don't all have to match.

Some interesting (science-y) books

I've come across a few good science-related-without-being-too-technical books lately. These are not brand new books, I just got around to reading them recently. I recommend them!

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson: A cholera outbreak in London in 1854, before anyone knew what caused cholera. Was it the air? Was it the water? What I like about this book is it is not just about disease or medicine but about the history (and future) of cities, plus a little medical detective work by John Snow and Henry Whitehead.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: Doctors took the cells of a poor black tobacco farmer without her permission. Those cells (HeLa cells) revolutionized science and medicine and launched a multimillion dollar industry. Twenty years later, her family found out...this book is really interesting and written in a way that makes you want to keep reading. It is also being made into a movie.

Stiff: The curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. I usually avoid anything having to do with dead bodies, but this actually looks interesting and potentially funny. I haven't read it yet but plan to read it soon.

Neighbor carts

This isn't exactly science-related, but who cares. I just discovered Neighbor Carts (in Chicago), a produce cart business. But it's not just any produce business--it's a social impact business, meaning the vendors are or were unemployed. It also fights the urban food desert problem--no or little access to healthy foods in urban neighborhoods. And the best part of all is that the produce is GOOD and CHEAP! I highly recommend shopping at a Neighbor Cart--the grocery stores can't beat the price x quality combination Neighbor Cart has. I should mention this is a joint venture between Streetwise and Neighbor Capital. Go eat more fruit!

Map of where to find them here.