"No the base test for all this garbage is way simpler than that.  You could
differentiat between capped and uncapped,  but other than that is seems to
me the "great scientific minds" are making this way to abstract and
complicated."

I don't know who the great scientific minds are, but I do know the scientific method.  It works.  The reason it works is that all known variables are taken into account when the experiment is designed.  If you make your experimental design too simplistic then there will be too many possible reasons for the observed outcome.  In other words, you'll be doing one of the experiments that people on this list love to beat up.

There is a reason we get PhDs in science.  Not all PhDs are equal that is true, but at least most of those who slog through understand, by the time they finish, why it is important to be very careful about experimental design.

In this case Jim is correct.  How do you know why a hive is "sick"?  You don't, most of the time, because we all agree (I think) that it isn't Varroa itself but Varroa-mediated diseases that actually kill your bees.  If chemicals are involved, Varroa are still there....so you can't accurately say why any given hive is "sick"...was it predominantly Varroa-mediated, or chemical induced?  You can't say definitively, unless you see a carpet of pollen-laden dead foragers outside your entrance, followed up by a chemical analysis.  You also cannot assume that because the hive is sick all the larvae have a common symptom.  If you want to examine whether wax contaminants diffuse into larvae you have to design a completely different approach.  It is not easy and it will take lots of time and resources.  Sure, it can be done.  But by whom, and who will pay?

Then, when you are done, all you will know is that a) yes, chemicals from the wax get into larvae, or b) no, chemicals from the wax do not get into larvae.   You still won't be able to say what is killing those bees.

Christina

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