+ GARDEN
Design
From the Lotus Family of Restaurants
The gift of fine dining! PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN PALMIERI
H
H O M E
TH 3T s 3AN 2AFAEL s s WWW LOTUSRESTAURANT COM
3IR &RANCIS $RAKE s &AIRFAX s s WWW CAFELOTUSFAIRFAX COM
We Do Vegan!
Anokha 'RANT !VE s .OVATO s s WWW ANOKHARESTAURANT COM
We Oer Gluten-Free Nan!
Worst of all, Colony Collapse is murder on satellite reception.
Honeybee, phone home! Are bees and hives the canaries in a coal mine for cell-phone damage? by Annie Spiege lman
A
study conducted this spring in India found a link between the disappearance of honeybees and cell phone use. If only it were that simple...Colony Collapse Disorder was found in the United States and various other countries in 2006. Beekeepers started noticing queen bees, normally very maternal, and their fellow worker bees weren’t returning to their ’hoods and their hungry brood. Many scientists believe Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is triggered by a combination of factors including mites, pathogenic bacteria and fungi, and the ubiquitous overuse of many pesticides. And now, possibly, my treasured iPhone? In this most recent study, researchers took four hives and placed two working 900mhz mobile phones in two of the hives and two dummy, non-functioning phones in the other two. They watched the hives for three months in the early spring. The working phones were put in call mode for 15 minutes a day from 11am to 3pm, twice a week. The hives with the working phones were found to produce less honey, and the queen bees laid fewer eggs. The researchers concluded that “the present study therefore suggests that Colony Collapse does occur as a result of exposure to radiation.� Many scientists and beekeepers disagree, saying that the study was too small to have any true value. “Indeed, I have read the study and found it very surprising that it passed peer review, “ says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist for Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture. “It is statisti-
cally not possible to compare two populations with a sample size of two. This is especially true for bees, as there is so much natural variation. Typically I would not give much credence to a honeybee study that has a sample size of less than ďŹ ve per treatment group [at a minimum you need three per treatment to perform stats].â€? Apparently, size matters after all. Scientists studying CCD say that many of the most severe cases have occurred in rural areas of the United States, where mobile phone coverage is poor. “There are many beekeepers I know who have apiaries where you don’t get cell phone coverage, and they have had losses,â€? says bee crusader vanEngelsdorp. Other researchers counter, saying that the countries where the most CCD has been reported are America and in southern Europe, both in the developed world, where technology is widespread. “A couple of myths are big on the Internet,â€? says Kim Kaplan, chief of public affairs projects of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Information Staff. “A small German scientiďŹ c study looking at a speciďŹ c type of cordless phones and homing systems of bees exploded over the Internet a few years ago. It morphed into blaming cell phones for the honeybee dieoff. The scientist who wrote that paper, Stefan Kimmel, later sent an email saying ‘no link between our tiny little study 17 >
Alloy Orchestra perform for
Alfred Hitchcock’s
Monday, July 19, 7:15 Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see Alfred Hitchcock’s silent ďŹ lm Blackmail which was later reworked as a talkie. With original music accompaniment by the renowned Boston-based Alloy Orchestra, this promises to be a ďŹ lm event you won’t forget! Tickets: $15 (CFI members $12) Smith Rafael Film Center 1118 Fourth Street, San Rafael 415.454.1222 caďŹ lm.org
JULY 9 - JULY 15, 2010 PACIFIC SUN 15