The Great Bee Mystery
Whither the bees? An American bee-tracking group has noted an alarming drop in the nation’s honeybee count, apparently due to their losing their inborn homing instincts and thus their way back to their hives. Conspiracy theories abound, according to The New York Times, including one claiming that what’s going on here is actually “the rapture of the bees.”
Wait, before you go…New York Times:
As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines for the disappearances. Or was it a secret plot by Russia or Osama bin Laden to bring down American agriculture? Or, as some blogs have asserted, the rapture of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven? Researchers have heard it all.
The volume of theories “is totally mind-boggling,” said Diana Cox-Foster, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University. With Jeffrey S. Pettis, an entomologist from the United States Department of Agriculture, Dr. Cox-Foster is leading a team of researchers who are trying to find answers to explain “colony collapse disorder,” the name given for the disappearing bee syndrome.
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