How
Howard Kerr is still at Oak Ridge, I talked to him Friday.  He has joined
the TN legislature (he kept his day job) and has been travelling the
globe, working in remote locations such as Russia.  He still has the same
telephone number and I assume the same work address.
 
Didn't ask the status of his acoustic device.  As I understand, the idea
is that size of bee affects wing beat frequency.  However, I found out
years ago and Erik Erickson and others found that European bees vary more
in size than generally acknowledged.  Erickson found that the foundation
supplied by various distributors of bee equipment has different cell
sizes.  I found that bees vary so much that some colonies can squeeze
through a hole 1/16 of an inch smaller than others.  Thus, Howard's
device may give false readings - although I have not asked him about this.
 
My guess, it works for clear cut differences, how good it is for
discriminating slight differences is something he would have to address.
Oh yes, Howard also was the motivating force behind development of the
solar powered infra-red transmitter that a bee can carry (sort of a radio
collar for bees).  He is a font of creative ideas.
 
Hope this helps find him.
 
Jerry Bromenshenk
The University of Montana
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