Here is the paper itself, which is at last out, in Nature. It has been
"making the rounds" in pre-print form.  Lots of discussion.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16167

But when major media outlets report on new science in this area, I am forced
to go read the paper (in Nature), compare it with what is said by the papers
(at the Newsstand), and be ready for the inevitable questions at
intermissions and halftimes from acquaintances who tend to shape policy,
budgets, and opinion.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/11/18/new-rese
arch-reawakens-the-huge-controversy-over-whether-pesticides-are-harming-bees
/

http://tinyurl.com/na2k2fh

So, the pesticide was thiamethoxam, and the doses were zero, 2.5ppb and
10ppb. Fair enough.  They measured pollen loads, and looked at the result of
the pollination done on the blossoms that the bumblebees (alone) pollinated.

Now, here is the big critique of the conclusions from Syngenta:

"Although treated colonies were less active pollinators and were associated
with fruits that contained fewer seeds, they did not seem to make a
significant difference in whether apple trees produced fruit or how many
fruits they produced."

Anyone who hauls bees to apples is able to see through that one in a
heartbeat.  Fewer seeds is one of the make-or-break metrics for grading
apples, and if my bees don't create high seed counts, the grower will blame
"weak hives" find someone else who will do the job properly.  In this case,
presuming weather allowed, the grower would be absolutely correct.

For those who don't haul their bees to apples in the snow and mud of
earliest spring,  apples have 5 "pockets" around their cores, which in a
perfect example of pollination, would have 2 seeds each for most varieties.
Fruit quality (symmetrical appearance) is worst when two or more of these
adjacent carpels are empty. Empty carpels reduce growth in fruit height
rather than diameter, so fruit diameter is not a very good metric of fruit
"quality".  Fruit without mature seeds can show symmetrical diameters but
are very asymmetric in fruit height.

To further complicate matters, there are some crosses of apples that show
high, sometimes near-perfect "syncarpy", where carpels of flowers are
joined, and getting pollen to any one of them results in all seeds maturing.
Primroses have this.  While this detail is an exception, it would be a
massive generic enhancement that everyone would be able to get behind if
someone was able to work out how to bestow the feature on more fruit and
veggie plants.

As an aside, many of the roses one buys are grafted onto apple tree
rootstock.  So, if the rose is damaged badly enough that it dies off, what
comes up next spring is an apple tree.  I propagate roses from cuttings I
root in a misting set-up, because I am a hardcore rose rustler, and I stalk
Old Garden roses, which are best on their "own roots", not grafted.

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