I haven't been able to locate the study indicating that honey bees avoided
cell phones, but I did find this on-line publication by the same author and a
colleague.
_www.bienenarchiv.de/forschung/2004_lernprozesse/Electromagnetic%20Exposure_Le
arning%20Processes.doc.pdf_
(http://www.bienenarchiv.de/forschung/2004_lernprozesse/Electromagnetic%20Exposure_Learning%20Processes.doc.pdf)
<NOBR>tion at the bottom of a beehive, right under the honeycombs. So the
station was placed with
After a long theoretical rationale for why one might expect electromagnetic
effects in insects, they placed a cell phone base station inside a beehive,
and report:
"We have observed that the honey bees have touched the sending aerial since
the beginning, they did not avoid it. We haven't also been able to recognize
a changing behaviour of the bees."
They placed the cell phone base unit on the bottom board under the combs.
________________________________________________________________
Like some others, I browsed the professor's list of publicaitons
_http://www.uni-landau.de/physik/pubkuhn.htm_
(http://www.uni-landau.de/physik/pubkuhn.htm) , don't see anything new.
Also, didn't find any news releases by him or his university, so its a
mystery, like CCD, as to where the Independent got its alleged story.
_________________________________________________________________
We've seen long-term apiaries sitting under cell phone towers with no
apparent effect. Many of the CCD locations that I've visited didn't have any cell
phone service, couldn't get a signal if you tried.
__________________________________________________________________
When we were placing tracking chips on the backs of bees a few years ago at
Pacific NW Labs in Richland, WA - we placed a signal generator near a hive
equipped with a bi-directional bee counter. We scanned a wide range of
frequencies up into the GHz range, saw NO effect as indicated by flow of bees
thought the counter.
__________________________________________________________________
I don't know about other beekeepers, but I wear my cell phone on my belt
while in bee yards, often park it on a lid, have yet to notice any chance in
behavior of the bees, except when it goes off in vibrate mode.
__________________________________________________________________
This is an easy one to debunk, anyone can do the supposed experiment of
placing a cell phone near, in front of, on top of, into, underneath a hive. I'd
even make some calls. For a control, take the battery out.
Do be sure to stand well away and to the side of the colony. If you place
yourself in front of the hive entrance, you will see an change in bee flight.
And, if you smoke in the beeyard, you will see an affect on the nearest
hives -- we've documented this with our bi-directional bee counters.
__________________________________________________________________
Since there's no other mention of this study, I'm guessing that the
professor didn't do it, that someone googled EM and bees, saw a ref to the on-line
paper, and never read it.
The author is a physicist, so all the theoretical computations in his paper
make sense. And I agree with him, bees MIGHT be able to discern some of
this, but if a phone base station in the hive didn't invoke a response, I doubt
that cell phone signals are causing bees to get lost
-- and how do you explain a field with three stockpile yards of bees -- one
in good shape, one showing signs of failing, and the other one almost
totally lost -- which I saw in CA -- surely all the bees were exposed to the same
EM fields in their foraging range -- colonies were less than 400 yds apart.
I'd be careful about blaming the professor, he may not have published
anything new. The press, on the other hand, needs to cite its source.
Cheers
Jerry
<N
<NOBR>Refe
<NOBR>[1] Faber,& Menzel, R. (2001); Visualizing mushroom body response to a
conditioned odor
<NOBR>in honeybees; Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 88 (pp. 472
<NOBR>[2] Giurfa, M. (2003); The amazing mini-brain: lessons from a honey
bee; Bee World, Vol.
<NOBR>No. 1 (pp.
<NOBKuhn, J. (2002); Interdisziplinarität in Wissenschaft und Bildung;
Tectum Verlag, Marburg.
<NOBKuhn, J. (2003); An Advanced Interdisciplinary Study in Theoretical
Modelling of a Bio-
<NOBR>logical System œ The Effect of High-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields
on Honey
<NOBR>ACTA Systemica œ IIAS International Journal, Vol. III, No. 1 (pp. 3
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