From: allen <[log in to unmask]>

>As I pay more attention, I am increasingly appalled at how the media and we, the public, seem to accept any study that comes along without a critical examination of its actual worth or meaning.  Many of these studies are designed to look at just one aspect of a topic, but are interpreted as having wider meaning.  We are seeing far too much of that lately.

Allen, this is an excellent observation..I know it must be, because I agree :)

In Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) we have a wonderful store that specializes in honey called "Follow The Honey" (the store's owner is a reader of Bee-L...I know because I often get an email from her after I post here).

They have been hosting a Monday evening lecture series on all kinds of topics...we attended an excellent talk on south African rock paintings.

In any case, Ramona was expressing her frustration about how some of the studies are written and accepted as fact when it came up that Dr. Lu (of the Harvard CCD study) was going to be giving a presentation on his study on May 21st.

We don't feel right about being overly antagonistic towards a presenter at their own presentation...he was invited to speak, and he should have the opportunity to do so (even though I have heard him speak on the subject, and I feel he is very misleading at best).

So, we have been invited to give a talk on June 11th at the store (we gave a talk on honey at their grand opening, and taught some bee school classes in the store as well).  Instead of some of the obvious subjects (treatment free beekeeping, the honey industry, honeybee biology, bee photography, bee breeding, etc), we have decided to give a talk entitled:

The People’s Homework:  Bee Informed!

How and Why Science Must Be Read Critically By The Masses

Laurie Herboldsheimer and Dean Stiglitz:  Golden Rule Honey

 
Scientific studies are too often reported by the media based on the claims made rather than as a result of analyzing what was actually done and what the results actually show.

The result is “reportable facts”…the basis for a news story designed to sell media rather than a solid stepping stone on the path towards “Truth”.  We are often selling honey at farmers markets, and in a single day we might hear from customers (who are doing their best to stay informed) that the cause of honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder has been found to be a virus, pesticides, malnutrition, mites, fungus, HFCS, cell phones, GMOs, etc…all causes that have been presented to them by the media as science.  But has the media actually reported the facts, or just the claims?

We will look closely at 3 recently published studies on honeybee biology (one of which has garnered a great deal of attention in the media), and compare the claims of the authors to what work was actually done, and what was actually shown by the work (sometimes they match…other times, not).  Of great import is the fact that very poor product can come out of very prestigious institutions and from very well respected researchers.  You can’t tell a book by its cover, and you can’t tell a study by its claims…or its pedigree.

Other issues, including flaws in the research system which makes it virtually impossible for researchers to admit mistakes, funding biases, and how changes in the publishing industry have made access to publicly funded research difficult and costly (even in this age of information) will also be covered.

The three studies we will discuss are:

“In Situ Replication of Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder,” Chensheng Lu, Kenneth M. Warchol, Richard A. Callahan, Bulletin of Insectology, June 2012 

Full Text: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/chensheng-lu/files/in-situ-replication-of-honey-bee-colony-collapse-disorder.pdf

Seeley, Thomas D. and Griffin, Sean R. 2011. “Small-cell comb does not control Varroa mites in colonies of honeybees of European origin”. Apidologie 42:526-532, DOI: 10.1007/s13592-011-0054-4

Martinson VG, Moy J, Moran NA. 2012. Establishment of characteristic gut bacteria during development of the honey bee worker. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. February 3, 2012

While the presentation will be addressing academic studies, all material will be presented in a “user-friendly” format.   Everyone is welcome – you don’t need to be a scientist to be a critical thinker –in many ways it helps not to be!

....readers of Bee-l will note that in addition to the Lu study, we will look at the Seeley small cell study (which I tried to discuss here, but only Allen was willing to comment), and the Martinson/Moran paper (which I brought up here as an example of very good work and excellent writing).

Anyone in the Boston area is welcome to attend, and you can find the store online at:  http://FollowTheHoney.com/

deknow

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