A fresh study from the Swiss Federal Insititute of Technology is suggesting that the dramatic decline in the world’s honey bee population may be related to cell phone signals. This study observed the reactions of a hive of Carniolan honey bees when cell phones were off, on standby, or in an active call. During a call, the bees would emit a noise ten times louder than normal to signal hive disturbance (called “piping”). We’ve seen a similar study from a couple of years ago corroborating this reaction, though it’s still unclear what specifically is happening to the bees when subjected to strong magnetic fields.
Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is something that’s been happening in North America since around 2006, and has killed off 50% – 90% of managed bee colonies in the U.S. From what we can see, the worker bees just suddenly leave the hive, abandoning the queen with a bunch of young, unable to provide for themselves.
Although it’s easy enough to shrug and say “oh well, no more honey for me”, bees are a part of a larger ecosystem, and could have some serious secondary effects to plant life that won’t be pollinated anymore. Most of the time we’re worried about whether or not cell phones are screwing up human bodies, but it makes sense that smaller creatures are more sensitive to these kinds of things.
You can read the full paper here, or learn more about colony collapse disorder here.
[via Laptop Mag]