> Over the past year or so, there has been a series of puzzling but overt attempts to phoo-phoo Nosema as having negligible impact on gestalt colony health and welfare.

The only worthy scientific advances are those that are still standing after being vigorously challenged. Unchallenged assumptions are essentially hot air. Politicians may resort to insults every time they are challenged, but a real scientist wouldn't employ this tactic to squelch opposition. 

By the way, I know a beekeeper who has been applying Fumagillin to his bees for decades. When I asked him what it does, he said he didn't know. But, he said, it's like insurance. You pay for it hoping you don't need it. "Superstitions like bats fly most at twilight," Sir Francis Bacon wrote.

PLB

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