?A post from the entomology list on the subject:
Subject: Re: Honeybees / cell phones
> Favre's work is about the worst I've ever seen published in
> Apidologie, and the reviewers and editors should be embarrassed by
> having it in print. That it has attracted such media atention is
> appalling, and makes me truly, truly sad for the state of science.
>
> For those of you who have not read the original paper, I can sum it
> up very easily:
>
> (1) Favre stuck an active cell phone inside some beehives, and an
> inactive phone inside some others as a control.
>
> (2) the bees made noises that suggested that an active cell phone
> inside the hive disturbed them, but an inactive phone did not.
>
> (3) Therefore, cell phones cause colony collapse disorder.
>
> This is not science. Up until point #2 it is fine, but the MONSTROUS
> leap from point #2 to point #3 is akin to blaming global warming on
> the decreased number of buccaneers. It doesn't help that the major
> citation Favre uses to back up his conclusion is an internet link to
> a newspaper report from India of an unpublished, unreplicated "study"
> that was based on a sample size of one colony. There are more data
> points to support the idea that Jesus appears to His faithful on
> pieces of fried starchy breakfast food (toast, pancakes, and waffles,
> in particular) than there are data points to show that honey bee
> colonies die - more than expected by chance - in the presence of cell
> phone emissions.
>
> There *is* credible evidence that CCD is caused by a combination of
> viruses and fungi, opportunistically wiping out infected honey bee
> colonies that are put under stress. There is still *no* credible
> evidence that cell phones, pesticides, or genetically modified crops
> have anything to do with CCD, especially when you consider that CCD
> dates back to 1869 - as was even pointed out in the exact same paper
> that *coined* the name Colony Collapse Disorder, back in 2007. No one
> is saying that cell phone emissions, pesticides, and GMO crops have
> *no effect* on honey bees - but there is no evidence yet that links
> these things specifically to CCD.
>
> Why do crackpots get all the press, while real scientists are ignored?
>
> Despairingly,
> --
>
> Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314
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