?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 a newspaper report from India of an unpublished, unreplicated "study" 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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