Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Mites and the Bees


People have, in recent years, noticed a decline in the Honeybee populations. This is regrettable because it makes the honey more expensive. Some have suggested that the trouble is caused by the ever increasing number of radio waves that we shove through the air.

This article suggests that one major source of trouble is Varroa Mites - and they might be controllable soon. It involves tinkering with their genetic code so the mites would "self-destruct". From what I can figure, it's like having an auto-immune disorder where the body attacks itself. While this is all very interesting, and hopefully the bees will win their wars, I'm pretty nervous about playing with the genetic codes of little bugs. What if they grow to be 10x their size as an unforeseen and unintended consequence?


(the red bug on the bee is the mite - on the picture above)

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