What's happening to our honeybees? Maybe they've been drafted. If you haven't heard about the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) that's destroying honeybee colonies all across the U.S. and parts of Europe, you can read more about it in the e-Alert "Slow Sugar" (3/22/07) which you can find at this link:
http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealerts/ea200703/ea20070322b.html Honeybees are responsible for the pollination of a large percentage of our food crops, so scientists are taking this problem very seriously. The exact cause of CCD is under investigation, but several culprits are suspected, including mites, fungus, pesticides, bioengineered crops, and perhaps even cell phone use. Or maybe the honeybees have all taken government jobs in New Mexico. Just this week I came across a report that's several months old, but it could explain a lot. Last November, the UK newspaper The Register ran an article about a research project at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Scientists have been training honeybees to extend their proboscis when they smell explosives. For those who skipped biology class the day they described the parts of a bee, the proboscis is a tube-shaped tongue that a honeybee extends from its mouth to feed on nectar. The plan for bomb-sniffing bees goes like this: Put a few honeybees in a transparent box, train security personnel to spot the extended proboscis, and then put the bee-filled boxes to use in any area where you might need to detect unwanted explosives. I'd love to know how they train a honeybee to extend its proboscis when it smells explosives, but since this technique comes from Los Alamos that's probably Top Secret.
Sources:
"U.S. Unleashed Bomb-Sniffing Bees" Lester Haines, The Register, 11/28/06, theregister.co.uk | 
