"That begs the question: could there be any effect from the radioactivity or
the substitution of C14 for C12? I can believe that it might not make much
difference to a mammal, but a synapse in a bee?"
Let me take a whack at this question. Potentially any radiation can be a biological problem. That gamma ray is a pretty potent photon and capable of breaking a chemical bond with ease. But, each C14 only gives off gamma rays when that isotope decays to something else. I may be wrong but think C14 decays to a nitrogen atom and gives off one gamma ray in the process. This is irreversible and only can happen once for each C14 atom. That gamma ray produced might whack a DNA on the far side of the body and do genetic damage that results in cancer. It is pretty unlikely it would whack something in the actual nerve where the pesticide is bound and kill the nerve. It is even more likely it would exit the body of a bee without whacking anything along the way.
Dick
" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner." Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists. "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong." H. L. Mencken
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