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How bees reject ‘toxic’
pesticides Prof Yash
Pal THIS UNIVERSE Trends |
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How bees reject ‘toxic’
pesticides Bees can detect pesticide residues in the pollen they bring back to the hive and try to isolate it from the rest of the colony, the American government’s leading bee scientist revealed in London recently. They “entomb” the contaminated pollen in cells which are sealed over, so they cannot be used for food, said Dr Jeffrey Pettis, head of the Bee Research Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture. Yet pesticides are not the only major factor involved in the declining health of bees, Dr Pettis told MPs. He also highlighted poor nutrition and disease, and how these interact. Great interest has been shown in Dr Pettis’s work on how a new generation of pesticides, the neonicotinoids, which are increasingly used over enormous acreages of crops in Britain and the US, and may be contributing to the worldwide decline in honey bees by making them more susceptible to disease. Dr Pettis has discovered that bees infected with microscopic doses of imidacloprid, the best-selling neonicotinoid made by the German agribusiness giant Bayer, are far more susceptible to infection by the harmful nosema parasite. Yet his study, which featured on the front page of The Independent two months ago, remains unpublished two years after it was completed. In London yesterday, Dr Pettis, who addressed the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science & Technology in Agriculture at Westminster, denied that there had been any pressure on him to keep his results unpublished. He said his study was going through the process of peer-review with a scientific journal, and he hoped it would be published shortly, perhaps in less than a month. “In fact, the US Department of Agriculture has given me freedom to talk about it,” he said. And he went on to stress how he felt that, although pesticides were an important issue in bee health — for instance, the recently-discovered case of bees “entombing” pesticide-contaminated pollen — they were not “the dominant factor”. The context of his remarks is that a growing number of beekeepers and environmentalists take the opposite view, and feel that pesticides in general, and neonicotinoids in particular, may well be the key reason for the alarming declines in pollinating insects being seen around the world, with the worst examples being cases of the so-called “colony collapse disorder” first recorded in the US. The principal concern about neonicotinoids is that they are “systemic” pesticides, which means that they are taken up into every part of the plant treated with them, including the pollen and nectar, so bees and other pollinating insects can absorb them and carry them back to their hives or nests — even if they are not the insecticide’s target species. But Dr Pettis said: “We can’t just point to any one single factor as being the dominant thing in the decline in honey bee health. Of late, it seems that this has been the dominant issue, that pesticides are driving everything in bee health. “I think there’s more of what I call the 3-P principle-poor nutrition, pesticides and pathogens. Those three things are interacting greatly. Nutrition is the foundation of good bee health, and certainly there’s some pesticide exposure going on, but it varies widely over time and space. And the pathogens in my opinion are often acting secondarily. But it’s the interaction of these three (that matters). You get three of them lined up and surely you’ll have bees in poor health. Even the combination of any two could be problematic.” Asked if he thought a precautionary approach — meaning perhaps a ban — should be taken with some of the new pesticides, he said: “I’m not a regulatory person so I hate to speak to ‘what should be done’. My own view is that pesticides are one of the issues confronting pollinators, but not the driving issue.” Dr Pettis discovered the ability of bees to sense the presence of pesticide in pollen, and to isolate it in the colony, in a study with another leading US bee researcher, Dennis van Engelsdorp, of Penn State University. They found that the bees had detected fungicide, and two insecticides used to kill parasitic mites in the hive, and sealed it off in cells using a sticky resin called
propolis. —The Independent |
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THIS UNIVERSE Do you believe that if all the empty spaces in the universe were removed, the universe would become as big as our fist? This is a fascinating excursion. You could say that an atom is more empty than the solar system. The universe is quite empty. The interstellar space contains only about one atom hydrogen per cubic centimeter. In the intergalactic space, this is one hundred thousand times smaller. Yet, it is enough to ensure that the universe is relatively stable and relatively flat. Even our hydrogen atom is quite empty. The size of an atom is small but the size of the nucleus inside is a hundred thousand times smaller. A peculiar happening, but this is the only way it works. The reason is that the so-called empty space is nothing; it carries the influence of every thing around. Also, whatever is not present physically has a potential existence that can transition to reality of the kind we can touch and feel through a quantum fluctuation. The statement you have made might be correct, but it is not realisable. On the other hand, you can have the masses of stars within a few tens of kilometers. We do have evidence of that. Is it true that we see the sun two minutes before sunrise and two minutes after sunset? Yes, it appears to be true. Even when the sun is below horizon its top would become visible because of heavy refraction of light through the thick atmosphere it has to cross to reach us. It might be true for locations close to the equator that the time difference is about two minutes. At higher latitudes, the difference might be smaller. I have answered this question after some hesitation because it is clear to me that the questioner had sent in this question after seeing lot of discussion in this regard on the Internet. I think he wanted to find out if I also do what he does! I confess that I have not spent any time actually calculating the magnitude of the effect, though I could have if I were not lazy! Maybe the questioner and some readers of this column should try to do that calculation. Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at palyash.pal@gmail.com |
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Trends
PARIS: British astrophysicist Martin Rees, whose research delves deep into the mysteries of the cosmos, has won the 2011 Templeton Prize for career achievements affirming life’s spiritual dimension. The £ 1 million award, the world’s largest to an individual, was announced on Wednesday in London. Rees, master of Trinity College at Cambridge University, is former head of the Royal Society and a life peer. Richard Branson unveils deep-sea submarine plans LOS ANGELES: Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, known for such exploits as trying to balloon around the world, said on Tuesday he planned to explore the deepest parts of the world’s oceans with a jet-like submarine. The 18-foot vessel is capable of descents of more than 36,000 feet below the surface, said Branson at a news conference in Newport Beach, California. US-Russian crew blast off for space station KOROLYOV, Russia: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft, carrying two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut to the International Space Station, blasted off early on Tuesday from Russia’s launchpad in Kazakhstan, blazing a fiery trail across the night sky. Russian Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyayev, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko are to join three other crew members aboard the orbital station after a two-day trip from Earth aboard the cramped spacecraft, an upgraded model of a Soviet-designed standby. Gene linked to alcohol consumption found LONDON: Scientists have identified a gene that appears to play a role in regulating how much alcohol people drink and say their finding could help the search for more effective treatments for alcoholism and binge drinking. In a study of more than 47,000 people, an international team of scientists found that people who have a rarer version of a gene called AUTS2 drink on average 5 percent less alcohol than people with the more common version. NASA delays launch date for Endeavour CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA said on Monday it is delaying the launch of space shuttle Endeavour to April 29 from April 19 because of a scheduling conflict at the International Space Station. The shuttle will be delivering a $2 billion particle detector called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to be mounted outside the space station in the second-to-last mission for NASA’s shuttle program.
— Reuters |
Astrophysicist Rees wins 2011 Templeton prize
