Article that appeared in Natural News
Genetically Modified Crops Implicated in Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder
by Patty Donovan, citizen journalistSee all articles by this author Email this author(NaturalNews)
As the disappearance of honeybees continues, researchers are trying desperately to discover the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). General consensus at this point is that there is more than once cause and the latest culprit may be genetically modified crops. This is one area of research being neglected as mainstream scientists insist GM crops are safe.For the last 100 years, beekeepers have experienced colony losses from bacteria, (foulbrood), mites (varroa and tracheal) and other pathogens. These problems are dealt with by using antibiotics, miticides and and other methods of pest management. Losses are slow and expected and beekeepers know how to limit the destruction. This new mass die-off is different in that it is virtually instantaneous with no warning of the impending collapse.John McDonald, a bee keeper in Pennsylvania with a background in biology, speculated that genetically modified crops could play a role in CCD. Although the government constantly reassures us that these genetic manipulations are safe for both humans and the environment, his hope is that looking more closely at these issues might raise questions about those assumptions.The common bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) supplies the most commonly used segment of transgenic DNA. Bt has been used for decades by farmers and gardeners to control crop damage from butterfly larvae. Now, instead of spraying this bacterium directly on the crops, where it is eaten only by the target insects, the genes containing the insecticidal traits are incorporated into the genome of the plant itself. As the genetically modified plant grows, these Bt genes are replicated in every cell of the plant, including pollen. Therefore, every cell of each GM plant contains its own poison aimed to kill the target insect. The target insects consume some portion of the plant, then once ingested, the toxin produced by the Bt genes causes crystallization in the guts of boring larvae and thus death. The primary toxin is a protein called Cry1Ab. In the case of field corn, the targeted insects are stem and root-borers and butterfly larvae.Although scientists "assure" us that bees (hymenopterans) are not affected, there are Bt variants available that target beetles, flies and mosquitoes. There is indisputable proof that Cry1Ab is present in beehives. Beekeepers spray Bt under hive lids to control the wax moth because the larvae cause messy webs on the honey. Canadian beekeepers have noted the disappearance of this moth even in untreated hives, apparently the result of bees ingesting Cry1Ab while foraging in GM canola plants.Bees forage heavily on corn flowers to obtain pollen for the rearing of young bees. These pollen grains also contain the Bt genes of the parent plant, because they are present in the cells from which pollen forms. Mr. McDonald believes it may be possible that while Cry1Ab has no direct lethal effect on young bees, there may be some sub-lethal effect, such as immune suppression, acting as a slow killer.Tens of millions of acres of genetically modified crops are allowing the Bt genes to move off crop fields and contaminate other flowers from which bees gather flowers. "Given that nearly every bite of food that we eat has a pollinator, the seriousness of this emerging problem could dwarf all previous food disruptions".(John McDonald) He proposed an experiment to compare colony losses of bees from regions where there are no GM crops to losses of colonies where they are exposed. He wanted to put test hives where GM crops are so distant from the hives that the foraging worker bees would have no exposure to GM crops. Researches readily dismissed his ideas and no one followed through with such an experiment.At this point, he decided to do his own investigation at his own expense. He established 8 colonies in new wooden hives to ensure no possible disease transfer from old hives. The bees were fed continuously with sugar syrup until the hives were placed at the selected locations.
"At both sites the flowers of goldenrod provided ample pasturage, with the honey flow commencing in the middle of August and tapering off by the second week in October. Medium-depth empty honey storage supers (a super is the part of the beehive used to collect honey) were put on the hives at this time in addition to the three brood chambers already there. By the simple expedient of lifting the hives from behind, progress could be roughly monitored.This monitoring showed that the hives of the farmland bees, while numerous, were not gaining weight. Meanwhile, the non-farm colonies steadily gained weight. This part of the experiment was terminated Oct. 14 with the removal of the honey storage supers, with these results: The farmland bees had not even started to work in the honey supers and will require extensive feeding before winter sets in. The non-farm bee colonies produced, in total, nearly 200 pounds of extra honey in addition to about 150 pounds per hive stored in the over-wintering brood supers. These colonies will be left in place to see whether the die-off of last season is repeated. These results should encourage new research to determine what factor or factors are present in farm country to cause such a discrepancy in honey production." John McDonald is a beekeeper in Pennsylvania. He welcomes comments or questions about the bee problem at mactheknife70@hotmail.com.Another study indicating that Bt may be contributing to the death of honey bees was undertaken in Mexico. This study compared the effects on young adult honeybees of 2 concentrations of Cry1AB (3 and 5000 parts per billion) to a chemical pesticide, imidacloprid. 3 different effects were evaluated by the researchers:
1. Survival of honeybees during sub-chronic exposure to Cry1Ab.2. Feeding behavior.3. Learning performance at the time that honeybees become foragers.Neither test concentration of Cry1Ab had lethal effects on the honeybees, however, when exposed to the higher concentration, feeding behavior was affected. The bees spent longer ingesting the syrup which contained the Cry1Ab which could mean smaller amounts of pollen would be collected. These bees also had impaired learning performance. Honeybees normally do not continue responding to an odor when no food is present, but should be discouraged and seek other sources. These bees continued responding to the odor which again, could affect pollen gathering efficiency. This study indicates that although Bt is not directly lethal to honeybees, it could indirectly lead to colony death due to failure to collect enough food to sustain the hive.These findings may be the key to the difference in honey production in Mr. McDonald's experiment. Bt appears to have non-lethal effects which become apparent only when the lethal effect is absent. Although not directly lethal to non-target organisms, the toxins from the Bt gene potentially puts non-target insects such as honeybees at risk.
http://persianoad.wordpress.com/2008/01...http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18206234
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Gecko Tech
A neat article we ran across at PopSci.com
The amazing lizard uses its hairy toes to defy gravity and its dynamic tail to always land on its feet if it falls. See how scientists are using the gecko's tricks to design better robots, spacesuits and—just maybe—Spiderman gloves.
Most people's knowledge of geckos doesn't extend much beyond the Cockney-tongued lizard hawking car insurance on TV. I won’t go into the implausibility of these ads, the least of which being that a gecko wouldn’t have a chance to survive Britain’s cold climate long enough to pick up an accent. They do, however, thrive abundantly in warm, tropical climates, and in total compose nearly 15% of all reptile species on Earth. If you're fortunate enough to live in gecko country, you've probably seen them climbing and crawling over just about every surface imaginable, including the ceiling.
Naturally, this impressive ability to "defy gravity" by quickly attaching and detaching themselves from surfaces without losing their balance led scientists to question how and why, and studies seeking to answer these fascinating questions have resulted in a variety of useful technologies for we humans to use in robots, spacecraft and Spiderman-like climbing gloves.
Originally, it was thought that a gecko’s ability to cling to walls was due to a secretion of some sort of adhesive on the pads of their feet. But when scrutinized with modern high-power microscopes, the surface of a gecko's foot revealed hundreds of thousands of tiny hair-like projections, called setae, which can be as small as one tenth the diameter of a strand of human hair and are themselves covered in even smaller projections, called spatulae, which are sometimes so tiny as to be smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Each time one of these setae comes into contact with a surface, the tiny hairs form a temporary atomic bond called a van der Waals force. This molecular bonding is relatively weak, but when multiplied over thousands upon thousands of setae, it becomes quite potent—strong enough that if every single setae was bonded to a surface, a typical adult gecko could support nearly 300 pounds of weight.
Another interesting facet of this setae foot design is that the adhesion is directional. As the gecko attaches its foot to a wall, since the setae are not all the same length, only some will make a connection. The gecko's weight and direction of travel will bend some of the setae down allowing more connections with shorter stalks, increasing the bond. However, when the gecko moves its foot in the opposite direction the connections break and the foot detaches from the wall. This allows the gecko to walk along the surface, attaching and detaching without getting stuck, secreting any adhesive, or expending any unnecessary energy.
The unique nature of this directional sticking has vast potential for use by humans. Unlike most strong adhesives currently used, a gecko-inspired system using van der Waals forces doesn't rely on tacky substances to stick, is reusable, self-cleaning and doesn't leave any residues. And since gecko-based adhesives would be directional and based on the physical bond between surfaces, these adhesives could be used (and reused) in space or even underwater.
Possibly applications include gecko-foot materials that NASA could use on the boots of spacesuits or in multi-purpose adhesive tapes. These tapes could also be tailored to medical procedures to bind tissue together and might replace the need for sutures altogether, as recent research at MIT indicates. Since they can work in a fluid environment, the medical tape could be used inside the body, made biodegradable, or possibly deliver drugs. Then, of course, there’s the more far-out potential for the development of gloves that could give the wearer Spiderman-like climbing powers.
Aside from their amazing feet, more recent studies have shown scientists taking design cues from the function of the gecko’s tail. It seems that the gecko uses its tail as a sort of fifth limb that acts much like a bike's kickstand to push itself back up against a wall if it begins to slip. This happens even if the gecko falls back up to an angle of 60 degrees from the wall.
Like cats, geckos always seem able to land on four feet if they fall. If its tail kickstand isn't enough to regain its footing, the gecko also instinctively uses its tail as a sort of pendulum to rotate it back into a feet-down position in the blink of an eye. This discovery could serve as design inspiration for more efficient gliders or spacecraft with more precise control surfaces.
Data from these studies of the gecko's amazing climbing abilities is currently being applied in several projects hoping to develop autonomous climbing robots. DARPA (no surprise there) has been funding many of these robots including the RiSE project or the Waalbot. Their hope is to to create search-and-rescue or reconnaissance 'bots that can use gecko-inspired tech to climb treacherous surfaces and regain their balance if they fall.
The majority of this research is based on just the Tokay gecko, a larger variety found in southeast Asia. But further research into the 1,100 additional species of gecko could lead to a diversification and refinement of the potential uses of gecko-based technologies. And if it leads to gloves that allow us to climb walls, geckos may be selling us insurance for more than just our cars.
The amazing lizard uses its hairy toes to defy gravity and its dynamic tail to always land on its feet if it falls. See how scientists are using the gecko's tricks to design better robots, spacesuits and—just maybe—Spiderman gloves.
Most people's knowledge of geckos doesn't extend much beyond the Cockney-tongued lizard hawking car insurance on TV. I won’t go into the implausibility of these ads, the least of which being that a gecko wouldn’t have a chance to survive Britain’s cold climate long enough to pick up an accent. They do, however, thrive abundantly in warm, tropical climates, and in total compose nearly 15% of all reptile species on Earth. If you're fortunate enough to live in gecko country, you've probably seen them climbing and crawling over just about every surface imaginable, including the ceiling.
Naturally, this impressive ability to "defy gravity" by quickly attaching and detaching themselves from surfaces without losing their balance led scientists to question how and why, and studies seeking to answer these fascinating questions have resulted in a variety of useful technologies for we humans to use in robots, spacecraft and Spiderman-like climbing gloves.
Originally, it was thought that a gecko’s ability to cling to walls was due to a secretion of some sort of adhesive on the pads of their feet. But when scrutinized with modern high-power microscopes, the surface of a gecko's foot revealed hundreds of thousands of tiny hair-like projections, called setae, which can be as small as one tenth the diameter of a strand of human hair and are themselves covered in even smaller projections, called spatulae, which are sometimes so tiny as to be smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Each time one of these setae comes into contact with a surface, the tiny hairs form a temporary atomic bond called a van der Waals force. This molecular bonding is relatively weak, but when multiplied over thousands upon thousands of setae, it becomes quite potent—strong enough that if every single setae was bonded to a surface, a typical adult gecko could support nearly 300 pounds of weight.
Another interesting facet of this setae foot design is that the adhesion is directional. As the gecko attaches its foot to a wall, since the setae are not all the same length, only some will make a connection. The gecko's weight and direction of travel will bend some of the setae down allowing more connections with shorter stalks, increasing the bond. However, when the gecko moves its foot in the opposite direction the connections break and the foot detaches from the wall. This allows the gecko to walk along the surface, attaching and detaching without getting stuck, secreting any adhesive, or expending any unnecessary energy.
The unique nature of this directional sticking has vast potential for use by humans. Unlike most strong adhesives currently used, a gecko-inspired system using van der Waals forces doesn't rely on tacky substances to stick, is reusable, self-cleaning and doesn't leave any residues. And since gecko-based adhesives would be directional and based on the physical bond between surfaces, these adhesives could be used (and reused) in space or even underwater.
Possibly applications include gecko-foot materials that NASA could use on the boots of spacesuits or in multi-purpose adhesive tapes. These tapes could also be tailored to medical procedures to bind tissue together and might replace the need for sutures altogether, as recent research at MIT indicates. Since they can work in a fluid environment, the medical tape could be used inside the body, made biodegradable, or possibly deliver drugs. Then, of course, there’s the more far-out potential for the development of gloves that could give the wearer Spiderman-like climbing powers.
Aside from their amazing feet, more recent studies have shown scientists taking design cues from the function of the gecko’s tail. It seems that the gecko uses its tail as a sort of fifth limb that acts much like a bike's kickstand to push itself back up against a wall if it begins to slip. This happens even if the gecko falls back up to an angle of 60 degrees from the wall.
Like cats, geckos always seem able to land on four feet if they fall. If its tail kickstand isn't enough to regain its footing, the gecko also instinctively uses its tail as a sort of pendulum to rotate it back into a feet-down position in the blink of an eye. This discovery could serve as design inspiration for more efficient gliders or spacecraft with more precise control surfaces.
Data from these studies of the gecko's amazing climbing abilities is currently being applied in several projects hoping to develop autonomous climbing robots. DARPA (no surprise there) has been funding many of these robots including the RiSE project or the Waalbot. Their hope is to to create search-and-rescue or reconnaissance 'bots that can use gecko-inspired tech to climb treacherous surfaces and regain their balance if they fall.
The majority of this research is based on just the Tokay gecko, a larger variety found in southeast Asia. But further research into the 1,100 additional species of gecko could lead to a diversification and refinement of the potential uses of gecko-based technologies. And if it leads to gloves that allow us to climb walls, geckos may be selling us insurance for more than just our cars.
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