mobile phones = no more honey?

[pixie_of_spite]

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007

Excerpt:The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from

Comments

[sheepmage]

This article was on slashdot. There were quite a few posters who gave good reasons to think that this "theory" was complete bullshit. However, the question remains: why do bees just suddenly die en masse? Apparently, these colony collapses have been going on for a while, and no one really knows why it happens.

One thing noted by the posters is that the article claims that scientists have just begun to notice the trend in Europe. The reason that's significant is because Europe is much more saturated in terms of cell phone usage than the States, and that's been true for quite a while. If there were a link between cell phone radiation and colony death, Europe would have been hit sooner and harder. Also, I just noticed that an article on wikipedia claims that the researchers behind the study have since denied that their research had anything to do with cell phones and CCD.

I suspect though that some people are either anti-technology or prefer to blame humans for things that are actually naturally occurring (or perhaps just sensationalist). Remember all that stuff about power lines and cell phones causing cancer?