Brian Switek writes,
I have an Allosaurus on my arm. Heart of Gold Tattoo artist Jon McAffee put it there a few weeks ago. I think the tattoo—designed for me by friend and artist Glendon Mellow—came out beautifully. Contorted into the classic dinosaur death pose, the Jurassic apex predator is an expression of my passions and aspirations.
Smithsonian, March 31, 2012
On the front porch of an old Coast Guard station on Appledore Island, seven miles off the southern coast of Maine, Thomas Seeley and I sat next to 6,000 quietly buzzing bees. Seeley wore a giant pair of silver headphones over a beige baseball cap, a wild fringe of hair blowing out the back; next to him was a video camera mounted on a tripod. In his right hand, Seeley held a branch with a lapel microphone taped to the end. He was recording the honeybee swarm huddling inches away on a board nailed to the top of a post.
This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.
The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks. By Joe Kloc. Published by The Atavist, 2012.
Reviewed by Tom Levenson
March 31, 2012
Earlier this week, my editor at the New York Times asked if I’d write a story about a pair of new papers in Science detailing experiments on how insecticides affect bees. Bees have been in decline in many places, and scientists have been trying to figure out the cause–or causes–of their fall. These two new experiments represent a new wave of more realistic tests, taking place on farms instead of in labs. They’re also important because they were designed to look at what happens when bees are exposed to more realistic, sublethal doses. My story appears in today’s issue.
Continue reading “Declining Bees and Toxic Insecticides: Sources for A Complex Story”
The New York Times, March 29, 2012
Scientists have been alarmed and puzzled by declines in bee populations in the United States and other parts of the world. They have suspected that pesticides are playing a part, but to date their experiments have yielded conflicting, ambiguous results.
In Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, two teams of researchers published studies suggesting that low levels of a common pesticide can have significant effects on bee colonies. One experiment, conducted by French researchers, indicates that the chemicals fog honeybee brains, making it harder for them to find their way home. The other study, by scientists in Britain, suggests that they keep bumblebees from supplying their hives with enough food to produce new queens.
Continue reading “2 Studies Point to Common Pesticide as a Culprit in Declining Bee Colonies”