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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
 Posted - 04/26/2007 : 08:52:22
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About a week ago I read about a study at Landau U in Germany which indicated cell phones as a cause for shrinking honeybee populations. I was going to post something here about it then, but better late than never. http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=146441 quote:
Now, researchers at Landau University in Germany have found that cell phone radiation could interfere with the bees' internal navigation capabilities. In a limited study, they showed that in some cases, up to 70% of bees exposed to radiation from a cordless phone docking unit placed in their hive later failed to find their way back to the hive.
Apparently several reputable papers ran the story without enough skeptical emphasis on how limited the study was and the other more likely possible explanations for the disappearing bees.
From here: http://www.plentymag.com/thecurrent/2007/04/plight_of_the_honeybee.php
quote:
But the buzz was unfounded. Turns out that the study, which the researchers who conducted it said was too small to be statistically significant, looked at the impact of electromagnetic fields similar to those used by cordless phones—not cell phones—on colony activity. They found that there might be an affect…and from there things got out of control.
I was reminded of this topic today while reading this article in Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070426100117.htm This explanation seems more plausible than the cell phone one.
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 09:42:20 [Permalink]
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There is also a mite wreaking havoc on bee populations.
quote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18326745/
We had a thread on the cellphone-bee thing, but it was short. I couldn't find an English version of the study in question, but the first thing that came to mind was something along the lines of: Cell phones use RF, we have been using RF for a long time, so I'd need to read the paper (in English) to have a better understanding of what they are actually saying. Because you'd think that if RF messed up bees navigation, we'd have noticed it before now.
Just another fine example of our tabloid media in action.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 11:26:19 [Permalink]
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The very instance I heard of claims that call phones might affect bees, I got skeptical.
Just like Dude said, RF signals have been around a lot more than cell phones without causing any significant problems. In fact, the increasing number of cell phone base stations actually lowers the intensity of RF signals, because both cell phones and base stations are programmed to use no more transmitting power than necessary to carry the signal. And since more stations means shorter distance between towers (and phones), both tower and phone can lower signal output.
A digital cell phone use about one tenth of the power compared to its analogue counterpart.
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 12:24:39 [Permalink]
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It certainly has the feel of an outbreak, First it was in the US in November then seen in Europe a few months later, then just recently moved to the UK and now today it is reported in Taiwan... And Cell phone use was rampant long before last November... WiFi is more likely then cells as that is a more recent phenomenon...
Really though the PS3 is so powerful that it is destroying the bees... |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
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Bees, Cell Phones, Buzz-kill
