More on bees and magnetic fields

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Magnetic Bees

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/trek/4wd/Over57.htmEach honeybee hive produces about 29 kg of honey per year. To help them make this honey, the bees talk to each other - and just recently, some scientists have learnt to speak this language! The story begins back in 1923, when Karl von Frisch from the University of Munich in Germany, published his first paper on the language of the honeybees. He reckoned that they ''spoke'' with each other by dancing the dance! Suppose a honeybee has found a flower bed rich in nectar and pollen. She flies back, into the hive, and tells her fellow workers about the flowers - by dancing. If the flowers are within 100 metres of the hive, she flies in circles. Soon, her fellow workers leave the hive, and fly in ever-enlarging circles until they find the flowers. But if the flowers are further away (up to 3 kilometres away), she dances a different dance inside the nest. She flies in a straight line, while waggling her rear end, and then flies a curved line to the beginning of the straight line, and does it all again. If her straight line points vertically up, then the other bees leave the nest, and fly in the direction of the Sun. And if the straight line points 60o to the right of vertical, the other bees fly in a direction 60o to the right of the Sun. And the speed of her waggling bottom tells the other bees the distance to the flowers - the faster the waggle, the closer the food! Karl von Frisch received a Nobel Prize for this theory in 1973. But his theory didn't go far enough. Most beehives are pretty dark inside, and like us, honeybees can't see very well in the dark. So how can they see each other do the dance? In the 60s, other scientists discovered that dancing honeybees emitted a sound from their wings, vibrating at 220 beats per second. They were singing a song with their wings. And honeybees do have a sort-of-ear on the second joint of their antennae. It seemed reasonable that bees could hear this song, but how do you prove it? In the late 80s, Wolfgang H. Kirchner and William F. Towne proved it with a robot honeybee. It had razor blades for wings, and tiny computer-controlled motors to make it dance. It could sing the song with its razor blade wings, and dance the dance via its electric motors. A real honeybees would ignore their robot razor blade honeybee, if it just danced the dance, or just sang the song. But when it did both the song and the dance, the real honeybee would obey it. The scientists could actually talk to the animals! They could get their robot honeybee to send the real honeybees out of the nest in any direction they wanted! So by using a song-and-dance routine, the bees can tell each other the best place to eat out. But once they've picked up their nectar and pollen, how do they find their way back to the hive? Honeybees have another trick - tiny compasses, in their tummies, that sense the Earth's magnetic field. Now under the right conditions, magnetic fields can effect humans. Susan Blackmore wrote about her experiences in the New Scientist, after a neuroscientist had blasted her brain with intense magnetic fields in his laboratory. She felt nothing for the first ten minutes. Then, even though she knew that she was reclining perfectly still in a chair, she felt as though she was swaying on a hammock. Almost immediately afterwards, even though she knew that there was nobody near her, she could feel "two hands grabbing her shoulders and pulling her upwards." As the magnetic fields continued to act on her brain, she could ''feel'' something grab one of her legs and try to pull it up the wall - although her eyes told her nothing was happening! And then the magnetic fields began to act on her emotions. She suddenly felt very angry - but she didn't know what she was angry about, nor at whom she was angry. This anger lasted only 10 seconds, but as it faded, she was suddenly beset with a very intense attack of fear. Again, she was not scared of anyone or anything, but she was very afraid. Now the human brain is very complicated, and we don't know why intense magnetic fields can cause such dramatic changes. But we do have a better idea of what's going on in honeybees. There are a few different types of magnetic materials. One is a type of iron oxide called magnetite, which is naturally magnetic, and we know that lots of creatures have tiny magnets of magnetite in their bodies. But there's another type of iron oxide which is paramagnetic. Paramagnetic materials are themselves not magnetic, but, they are pulled by magnetic fields. So a non-magnetic paper clip made of soft iron is actually paramagnetic, because it can be pulled by a magnet. According to doctors Hsu and Li of the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, honeybees have tiny paramagnetic particles in their bodies. These paramagnetic particles are inside cells inside the bees' tummy. Depending on whether they are lined up side-by-side, or end-to-end, these paramagnetic particles can, as the external magnetic field changes, swell or shrink. But, these paramagnetic particles are attached to the ''walls'' of the cells that they are in, so as the paramagnetic particles change shape, so do the cell walls. And nerves, attached to the outside of these cells, carry signals up to the honeybee's brain. So the magnetic cells in the bees tummy are like tiny onboard compasses. This is the first time scientists have actually followed the ''line of information'' in a living animal, from the magnets to its brain. Now honeybees are told how to leave the nest and where to go by the buzzing wings and waggling dance of another honeybee. And, by using the paramagnetic particles of iron oxide, these honey bees can avoid getting lost on the way home, and iron out their problems with a little magnetic navigation.

Karl S. Kruszelnicki

 

February 16, 2007

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index984.htm

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Putin Orders Russian ‘Queens’ Home, Decimates US Bee Industry

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

In reviewing reports from our Kremlin sources today I could not help but call to mind the words of the great German scientist Albert Einstein, and who when asked what kind of weapons World War III would be fought with, Einstein responded, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

These thoughts of mine were due to the information contained in these reports relating to the decimation of the domestic bee industry in the United States, and as we can read about as reported by the Mongabay.Com News Service in their article titled "Mysterious outbreak killing millions of bees", and which says:

"An mysterious outbreak is causing the deaths of millions of honeybees in 22 states according to an entomologist from the University of Montana.

Jerry Bromenshenk says that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is "causing agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon their hives and disappear."

“Individual beekeepers are really taking a beating,” Bromenshenk said. “A guy down in Oklahoma lost 80 percent of his 13,000 colonies in the last month. In Florida, there are a whole lot of people facing 40, 60 and 80 percent losses. That’s huge.”

"With CCD, most adult honeybees abandon a hive and disappear, leaving the queen and a remnant of younger bees. The malady also is characterized by uncapped brood -- when the cells of young bees in the pupa stage are not covered and protected by their older sisters -- probably because most of the adult bees have left. Dead adult bees aren't found near the hive; they are just gone," explains a news release from the University of Montana."

Now, it is very important to understand that these bees are not dead, or dying, they are simply ‘disappearing’, and which led me to remember my studies under Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev in the 1980’s, and where a great deal of Soviet effort was then being put into the saving of the American domestic bee industry due to devastating losses caused by varroa mites.

To the success of the Soviets efforts we can read as reported by the Science News, Vol. 154, No. 6, August 8, 1998, and which said:

"Federal scientists hope to establish a Russian dynasty throughout the United States—one populated by the progeny of Asian-hatched honeybees, renowned for their resistance to mites.

That goal moved a step closer last week. The first generation of bees produced by 90 expatriate queens, just released from quarantine, has significantly outperformed U.S. members of their species, Apis mellifera, in resisting infestation by varroa mites.

 

This parasite, which first turned up among U.S. honeybees 11 years ago, has taken a devastating toll. Feeding off their hosts' blood, the energy-sapping mites weaken and soon kill the bees (SN: 2/8/97, p. 92). Moreover, mites in four states have developed resistance to the one pesticide approved for use against them, notes Thomas E. Rinderer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture honeybee laboratory in Baton Rouge, La.

Such pesticide-resistance leaves beekeepers defenseless, he says. Indeed, he notes, because wild honeybees never received treatment, "they're gone." Though swarms that stray from beekeepers' colonies may survive a few months in the wild, he says, these days "they're doomed, too."

The parasites develop on bee pupae. Once a bee emerges as an adult, it normally lives 30 days or more, depending upon how hard it works. But an infested worker may survive only 3 to 5 days in its sickly state. The mites, which also attack adults, reproduce on a 10-day cycle, allowing them to quickly kill off a colony.

In the new tests, Rinderer's team exposed 90 parasitefree colonies to mites. Each colony contained a Russian-hatched queen and up to 60,000 of her offspring. About 12 weeks later, the USDA scientists tallied how many mites infested the adults and pupae.

From previous data on U.S. colonies, "we would have expected an 11.4-fold increase in mites during the test period," Rinderer says. Instead "we got an average 3.9-fold increase—and many colonies had no increase. This is extremely exciting."

Though many honeybee populations along the Primorski region of Russia's Pacific coast have had a century to develop natural resistance to the varroa mite, bees who arrived there more recently show little ability to coexist with the parasite. The current tests were designed to identify and eliminate these weaker bees from any U.S. breeding program.

Imported a year ago, the queens, which can live up to 3 years, are becoming quite elderly. Colonies headed by their daughters, however, are now beginning a new wave of tests to compare them directly with U.S. hives. The queens, which mate only once, carry sperm from descendants of Primorski-hatched bees. By next spring, Rinderer's team plans to begin distributing mated Russian queens to beekeepers for experiments to evaluate how well they pollinate plants and produce honey under field conditions.

The Russian queens are fueling considerable excitement among apiarists, says Troy Fore of the American Beekeeping Federation in Jesup, Ga. The cost of treating colonies with the varroa miticide can eat up 20 percent of a beekeeper's gross earnings—or about 80 percent of the intended profit, he says. Bees with Russian genes should reduce the need for some or all of these expensive treatments, he adds."

The Russian queens also "offer to throw the [mite] resistance gene into [stray] bees," reestablishing a self-sustaining feral community, notes beekeeper Kim Flottum, who edits Bee Culture in Medina, Ohio.

Unknown to the Americans, however, relating to the saving of their domestic bee industry by the massive introduction of Russian Queen Bees was the Soviet research on bees that built upon the research being carried out by Würzburg Zoologists, and which resulted in their groundbreaking study titled "Bursts of magnetic fields induce jumps of misdirection in bees by a mechanism of magnetic resonance"

Now, without making this a pure science report, and which is not our intention as we only seek to provide general information that can lead to your further research, these scientists discovered that “bursts at a frequency of 250 Hz oriented parallel to the field-lines of the EMF induce unequivocal jumps of misdirection of up to +10°” in colonies of Russian bees, and which is highly significant should ‘someone’ wish to destroy bee colonies by causing their workers to ‘disappear’ and not be able to find their way back to heir hives.

(It is important to note that domestic bees that have lost their domestic hives are able to produce a new feral queen and continue to survive in the wild.)

The greater significance of these events, though, rests with the 250 Hz range (The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. Its base unit is s-1 (also called inverse seconds, or 1/s). In English, hertz is used as both singular and plural. One hertz simply means one per second.), and which not only will cause Russian domesticated bees to lose their ability to re-find their domestic hives, but is the frequency attributed to causing great anger in human beings.

It has long been known that both the United States and the Soviets have conducted decades long research into the use of mind control technologies, with the greater aim being towards the control of their own citizens, but also towards its uses in warfare, and which these events appear to be coming into line with past predictions of the unintended consequences should these esoteric be unleashed.

What is occurring in the United States today relating to hundreds of millions of their domestic bees disappearing, and who are descendents of their original Russian Queen ancestors, is that their Military Leadership has unleashed upon their citizens through their propaganda media organs (television/radio) the ‘fearful’ 250 Hz signal intended to ‘anger’ their population in the buildup towards war with Iran.

But! One of the unintended consequences produced by their provocative actions against their own citizens is that they have likewise ‘signaled’ the demise of their agricultural industry through the decimation of their domestic bee industry.

Is it indeed possible that the Soviets in the 1980’s were foresighted enough to plant this ticking time bomb in the very heart of America should the United States at some future date become intent upon Global domination?

A simple phone call to our Kremlin sources provided this cryptic answer, “The ‘Honey Plot’ does exist, Putin himself gave the order.”

© February 16, 2007 EU and US all rights reserved.

 

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross

Published: 15 April 2007

 

 

 

 

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

The case against handsets

Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.

Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.