Charged bees can sense electric flower fields

By Philippa Warr

Positively charged bees are able to recognise electric signals given off by flowers as part of the plant pollination strategy.

The electrical signalling works in tandem with other signs such as colour, pattern and fragrance to tell bumblebees (and other insect pollinators) about the amount of nectar and pollen they may contain.

"This novel communication channel reveals how flowers can potentially inform their pollinators about the honest status of their precious nectar and pollen reserves" said co-author Heather Whitney of the University of Bristol.

Generally the flowers are negatively charged and generate a weak electric field while the bees become positively charged as they fly around -- the study suggests the charge can build to around 200 volts. The sensation felt by a positive bee meeting a negative plant can be enough to convey snippets of information while its absence could reveal whether the flower has recently hosted another insect.

The biologists noted that not only could the bumblebees tell the difference between various floral electric fields, but when learning to tell two colours apart having an electric field involved sped up the process.

"The co-evolution between flowers and bees has a long and beneficial history, so perhaps it's not entirely surprising that we are still discovering today how remarkably sophisticated their communication is," said Daniel Robert, who also worked on the study. He also stressed how a bee's intelligence made it necessary for the flowers to develop an effective communication strategy: "bees are good learners and would soon lose interest in such unrewarding flowers".

The exact mechanics by which the bees detect these electrical variations is not fully understood, although the explanation favoured by the researchers is that coming near the charged flowers causes the bees' fur to "bristle", like when you hold the back of your hand a couple of millimetres from an old TV screen.

Image: Laurent Jégou / CC BY ND 2.0

Read more at: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/22/bee-electric-flowers

To Revive Honey Bees, Europe Proposes a Pesticide Ban

Photograph by Odilon Dimier/Getty Images

Posted by: Bernhard Warner 

The honey bees are still dropping dead. Nearly seven years after a sudden and unexplained drop in the bee populations of North America and Europe first made international headlines, these vital pollinators are still at risk. In the U.S., beekeepers reported the loss of one-third of their colonies each year from 2006 to 2011. Much of Europe has witnessed similar declines—not good for a species that pollinates 90 percent of the food we eat, at a value of €153 billion ($204 billion) globally to farmers.

For food science researchers, finding the culprit for bee colony collapse disorder has become the equivalent of discovering a cure for cancer. The plausible suspects are varied. Some scientists have fingered globalization; others pointed to climate change. Nasty new viruses, parasites, and pollution have also been blamed. The use of certain pesticides by farmers, the agricultural industry, and gardeners has also long been suspected of possibly killing bees, or at the very least fouling up their foraging instincts, confusing them to a point at which they cannot be relied upon to pollinate acres of almond groves or cherry orchards.

Recently, Europe’s food safety watchdog, the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA), issued a declaration that three specific common pesticides pose an acute risk to honeybees. Now the European Commission has proposed a two-year ban on these pesticides, which could be ratified as early as this month. It would require a majority vote by EU member states; if it passes, the restrictions will take effect in late spring.

This is a controversial move. Thousands of jobs and billions in crops are at stake, with no assurance that pesticides are to blame. Colony collapse disorder, as it’s called, has been observed in bee populations at intervals over the least 100 years, and pesticides certainly wouldn’t have explained it in the early 1900s, for example. ESFA acknowledges that it cannot link the chemicals directly to bee colony collapse syndrome. Still, it says the research is strong enough to pull the chemicals off the market.

The research is the work of Italian biologist Marco Lodesani, director of a honeybee and silkworm research institute in Bologna. From 2009 to 2011, Lodesani and his team conducted countless autopsies on bee carcasses and continuously saw the same thing: something toxic was killing the bees. They traced the suspected poison primarily to maize seeds coated in an insecticide meant to keep sap-sucking pests from destroying the crop.

Lodesani’s team then conducted a battery of experiments to determine the neurological impact of the most common insecticides linked to the seeds. They found that even at recommended usage levels, the chemicals are putting the survival of bee colonies at risk.

“Our findings show that the bee colonies are dying off in such large numbers, and that the link is pesticides,” says Lodesani. He added that the “pharma” link, as he calls it, is strong enough to rule out other suspected causes, such as a deadly virus, as a principle cause for colony deaths.

The group wrapped up its findings in 2011 and persuaded Italy to ban certain neonicotinoid pesticides, a relatively new kind of insecticide chemically related to nicotine. France has since introduced a ban on seeds treated with a specific neonictinoid, imidacloprid, which is thought to be the most widely used insecticide in the world. (Slovenia and Germany have imposed similar temporary bans in the past.) Lodesani says the bee death numbers in Italy are well down since the Italian ban was put in place, though, it must be noted that the death rate started to stabilize just prior to the ban’s introduction.

The makers of the insecticides—Bayer CropScience (BAYN) and Syngenta (SYT)—say the regulators’ conclusions are highly flawed. The ban of these three types of insecticides would do more harm than good, they contend, costing Europe’s agricultural sector €17 billion in lower crop yields over a five-year stretch and putting 50,000 jobs at risk. Spooked by such numbers, Europe’s powerful farmers’ unions are opposed to an immediate ban. Across the Atlantic, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting its own research, which won’t be complete until 2018 at the earliest.

This is only the beginning, Lodesani says: “Modern farming requires a complete change of thinking, away from a reliance on chemicals and back to a respect for biodiversity.” In other words, he says, when we talk about bees and crops, we are really talking about canaries and coal mines.

A Laser Built for Mars Has a New Gig: Authenticating Honey

How can you tell whether your honey is legit?

Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/GettyImages

Scientists in England have found they can identify counterfeit honey using a laser originally built to explore the universe. It’s sort of like how playing Words With Friends on a smartphone with more processing power than the computers that put a man on the moon.

Sometimes these adapted technology stories make it seem like scientists are just standing around shooting lasers at things all day (or injecting weird stuff into toads), but the reality is a little more measured.

The European Space Agency has a little thing called the Technology Transfer Programme designed to prove to European citizens that space research is, in fact, worthwhile. (See,Bill Nye, it’s not just us.) Last month, the TTP gave the world better racing tires, thanks to a high-damping material originally designed to protect sensitive instruments in space and about half a dozen other things. This month, they went for the honey.

There have been all sorts of scandals regarding the quality of our honey. About 76 percent of what you buy in the grocery store has had its pollen removed. Now, there’s really no good reason for someone to do that—it doesn’t change the flavor or quality, and the ultrafiltration required to do such a thing means extra production costs. Which means the honey was likely filtered for nefarious purposes. Pollen is the only way to track where honey comes from, and certain countries (ahem, China) have reason to obscure its origins because they normally have to pay high import tariffs because their honey is full of heavy metals and antibiotics. 

Enter the friggin’ laser. Seven years ago at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England, work began to build a laser that could identify isotopes in space. Specifically, the researchers wanted to get into the Martian atmosphere and investigate the Red Planet’s mysterious methane. Identifying carbon isotopic ratios, for instance, could set off a string of hyperbolic headlines here on Earth. As Dr. Damien Weidmann, Laser Spectroscopy Team Leader at RAL Space explained on their website, “If it’s bacterial in origin, it would mean a form of life occurred on Mars.”

Unfortunately, scientists don’t get many opportunities to go play in the Martian atmosphere, so the laser’s mostly been hanging out in the back alley breaking bottles and incinerating cigarettes. Happily, the ESA noticed this and decided to fund a TTP project in order to get themselves, and the laser, some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

By training the appropriated isotope ratio-meter on the carbon dioxide emitted from burning a bit of honey, Weidmann and company are able to use isotopic fingerprints to compare samples from all over and determine their origins. The same process works for other foods, too, which means better regulation could be coming to the chocolate andolive oil industries as well.

Let this be a lesson to all would-be food counterfeiters. We built a laser for Mars, but instead, we’re aiming it at you.

Read more at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/15/laser_intended_to_be_used_on_mars_can_spot_adulterated_honey.html

Nature's Golden Elixir: Honey Feels Wrath of Climate Disruption

Dr. Reese Halter

Broadcaster and Biologist

Honeybees are incomparable; their honey is one of Nature's greatest riches attracting honey-hunting humans for millions of years dating back into the Paleolithic period as far back as the Old Stone Age.

Archeologists have documented almost 400 sites in 17 regions, including Europe, North and South Africa, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, where ancient peoples recorded the cherishedhoney-hunt in detailed petroglyphs.

Shamans with supernatural powers climbed trees with vine ladders, carrying collection baskets tied to their waists, to fearlessly raid hives. The shamans knew that honey was loaded with vitamins and minerals.

In fact, honey contains water-soluble B1, B2, B6, pantothenic and nicotinic acids, vitamin C -- as well as high amounts of fat soluble vitamins E, K and A. Honey also provides us with essential minerals: calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium and sulfur. Some of these minerals in the specific concentrations found in honey mimic the concentrations of blood serum. Therefore, honey metabolizes easily, can be an important source of essential nutrients; and with all its sugars, it's an excellent, healthy source of caloric energy.

The shamans also knew that honey was filled with potent healing properties. Modern science corroborates their ancient knowledge: Honey contains over 200 substances.

It turns out that bees secrete a glucose oxidase enzyme that assists in converting nectar into honey. Along with oxygen, the glucose enzyme splits the glucose molecule into water and hydrogen peroxide. Due to its hydrogen peroxide and glucose oxidase content, honey is a powerful antiseptic.

High amounts of malic, citric, tartaric, oxalic and other organic acids combined with enzyme catalase and peroxidase give honey its renowned antibacterial properties.

New Zealand's manuka honey carries high levels of a chemical called methyl-glyoxal, which stops bacterial infections including drug-resistant, hospital-killing bugs e.g. Staphylococus aureus. Manuka honey kills microbes even after the hydrogen peroxide is gone because it packs powerful medicinal bee enzymes that disrupt cellular activity in germs.

Mayan shamans revered the stingless honeybees and successfully treated cataracts, conjunctivitis, chills and fever with honey-based medicines. By the way, with over 80 percent sugar content and its natural acidity, honey creates an inhospitable environment for single-celled microbes that form infections. That's why some modern bandage companies line their products with diluted traces of honey.

Rapid climate change is not only bringing us snowstorms like Nemo, superstorms like Sandy or weeks on end of summer rains like those experienced last year in the U.K.. Climate change is also bringing intense and prolonged droughts like those currently enveloping Australia, Spain,theUnited States and elsewhere.

In 2011, Western Australian beekeepers faced a drought that ushered in the worst honey crop in more than three decades. The Australian drought persisted; in 2012 Victorian beekeepers endured their worst honey season on record.

Plants stop producing flowers during intense droughts exacerbated by searing heat-waves (like those occurring around the globe, today). Without flowers, bees have no food (nectar and pollen), and they die. And without bees most plants cannot cross-pollinate or produce seeds. It's a frightening glimpse of a potential uncoupling of one of Nature's most important biological land-based partnerships: Flowers and Bees.

According to the Australian Federal parliament inquiry: Bees may be facing a major food crisis. The Australian government is asking farmers and city gardeners to help bee populations survive by planting bee-friendly gardens without using any insecticides.

In 2012, New Zealand's manuka honey production tumbled by 60 percent whilst its price spiked by33 percent. University of Canterbury scientists are calling for a significant reduction of insecticides (all neonictinoids), and for more uncultivated bee habitat and nesting sites to provide safe food sources amongst agricultural landscapes. Bees directly contribute $5 billion to New Zealand's economy, annually.

Continuous summer rains and lack of flowers pummeled Britain's honey production in 2012 by 72 percent -- most bees never left their hives, instead they shivered and starved to death.

Honey production in Spain, the 12th largest honey producer on the globe, also felt the wrath of drought; down by a whopping 70 percent in 2012.

Bees are responsible for pollinating most of our foods (including beef and dairy), the cotton we wear, 44 million pounds of beeswax and 2.65 billion pounds of honey, that we eat each year, globally.

We are running out of time to combat more than 85 million metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted daily: Earth's bees are clearly showing scientists that they cannot conduct their business of pollinating and making honey -- as climate disruption escalates, quickly.

It's time to embrace efficiency and innovation, and the dictum of the London School of Economics co-founder George Bernard Shaw: "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

Earth Dr Reese Halter is a broadcaster, biologist and author of The Incomparable Honeybee

 

Follow Dr. Reese Halter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrReeseHalter

Khasiat madu lebah kelulut

Oleh HAPIZAH AZIZ
utusankelantan@yahoo.com


Sarang Kelulut yang mengandungi Bee Bread.

KOTA BHARU 19 Mei - Kelulut merupakan antara 33 jenis spesies lebah trigona yang tidak mempunyai sengat dan madunya dikatakan mempunyai banyak khasiat untuk memulihkan pelbagai penyakit kronik.

Berbeza dengan kebanyakan lebah, kelulut tidak berbahaya kepada manusia dan madu yang dihasilkan sangat berguna dalam bidang perubatan dan kesihatan.

Selain madu, dua lagi bahan dihasilkan oleh lebah kelulut yang sangat istimewa ialah bee bread iaitu campuran polen dengan madu, air liur dan cairan dari perut lebah yang boleh membantu masalah pencernaan dan fermentasi.

Sementara propolis pula merupakan campuran getah tanaman dan cairan khusus yang dikeluarkan oleh lebah dan ia dikatakan mempunyai khasiat perubatan yang tinggi.

Antara penyakit yang dilaporkan sembuh melalui kaedah rawatan tradisional mengunakan propolis termasuk diabetis, mellitus, strok, hepatitis, kanser, hipertensi, batu karang dan HIV/AIDS.

Justeru, khasiat dan keistimewaan madu lebah kelulut yang tinggi telah mendorong pesara Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang Kelantan, Razip Ibrahim, 53, dari Kampung Petani, Sering dekat sini berusaha menternak lebah berkenaan secara komersial.

Menurut Razip, bagi setiap koloni lebah kelulut yang diletakkan dalam kotak berukuran 70 sentimeter kali 20 sentimeter mampu menghasilkan antara 200 hingga 300 gram campuran madu dan bee bread serta 200 hingga 400 gram propolis.

“

Koloni kelulut akan mengeluarkan madu di dalam ‘tempayan’ dan menutup tempayan itu apabila madu sudah penuh, manakala bee breed juga diisi dalam tempayan tersendiri di dalam sarang,” katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini baru-baru ini.

Kata bapa kepada lapan orang anak itu, dia mula mengetahui mengenai khasiat madu lebah kelulut setelah menyertai seminar mengenai lebah dan kelulut di Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Kampus Kesihatan Kubang Kerian dekat sini, pada tahun lalu.

Kebetulan katanya, pada seminar yang diadakan dengan kerjasama Lembaga Pemasaran Pertanian Persekutuan (FAMA) dan Jabatan Pertanian Kelantan itu, dia bertemu seorang pensyarah Universiti Hasanuddin Ujung Pandang, Makasar, Indonesia iaitu Prof. Mappa Toba yang menceritakan kepentingan ternakan lebah kelulut.

Bermula daripada maklumat tersebut jelasnya, dia mengkaji mengenai koloni kelulut di seluruh Kelantan termasuk di kawasan kampung dan hutan.

“Hasilnya, saya berjaya mengenal pasti empat jenis koloni kelulut pelbagai saiz termasuk bersaiz lebah,” katanya yang merupakan penternak tunggal kelulut di negeri ini dengan membela 30 kotak spesies itu di pekarangan rumahnya.

Razip Ibrahim dan isterinya, Rahimah Hamat memasukkan madu yang diambil dari sarang kelulut ke dalam botol.

Mengulas lanjut Razip berkata, lebah kelulut besar mengeluarkan paling banyak madu yang boleh dikumpulkan setiap dua minggu sekali.

Setakat ini lebah-lebah kelulut yang diternak itu telah menghasilkan kira-kira 10 kilogram madu.

Bagi meyakinkan lagi masyarakat tentang khasiat madu lebah kelulut, dia bekerjasama dengan USM termasuk melakukan penyelidikan mengenai khasiat bee bread dan propolis yang dikatakan sangat berkesan dalam merawat serta mencegah pelbagai penyakit.

Kajian dilakukan di bawah pengawasan Prof. Madya. Siti Amrah Sulaiman itu menunjukkan penggunaan madu kelulut boleh menurunkan paras glukos pesakit diabetes selain berkesan untuk mencegah kanser dan gout,” katanya.

Bagi mempelbagaikan produk berasaskan madu lebah kelulut, dia turut menceburi bidang pembuatan coklat dan pelbagai produk kesihatan berasaskan madu, selain menjadi pembekal lebah kelulut kepada mereka yang berminat menceburi bidang berkenaan.

“Tidak banyak modal diperlukan bagi menternak kelulut, iaitu hanya kotak bagi menempatkan koloni kelulut itu dan ia mampu mendatangkan pendapatan lumayan kerana harga madu lebah kelulut boleh mencecah sehingga RM90 sekilogram,” katanya.

Menurut Razip lagi, dia mendapatkan koloni lebah kelulut dari kawasan kampung dan hutan di Kelantan dan menempatkan lebah-lebah itu dalam kotak di sekitar rumahnya.

Katanya, setiap koloni lebah kelulut mengenali kotak ‘tempat tinggal’ masing-masing dan secara berterusan akan menghasilkan madu kerana mempunyai hubungan yang rapat dengan ‘permaisuri’.

“

Menguruskan ternakan kelulut ini tidak menyusahkan kerana koloni kelulut menghisap semua jenis madu bunga yang terdapat di kawasan sekitarnya. Kelulut yang saya ternak sekarang mengeluarkan madu berbau bunga durian kerana sekarang musim pokok durian berbunga,” kata Razip yang dibantu oleh isterinya, Rahimah Hamat, 53.

Jelas Razip, dia berminat untuk berkongsi kepakaran menternak kelulut dengan mereka yang berminat boleh menghubunginya menerusi 09-7648248 atau 013-9840911.

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