Follow the Honey: Can we Save the Bees by Tracking Them?

Colony Collapse Disorder may sound like the name of a dystopian science fiction novel, but it's a real and present danger to the planet. For years, honey bees around the globe have been wandering from their hives and dying for no apparent reason. In some countries, 50% of hives have committed this odd kind of suicide

This is a disaster for humans as well as bees. The wee buzzing beasties pollinate roughly a third of our food supply; $200 billion worth of crops annually. If they were to die out completely, you might have to kiss goodbye to tomatoes, almonds, avocados, berries, beans, limes and lemons, to name but a few. (And if their extinction sounds unlikely, well, so did that of the great-tasting, ubiquitous passenger pigeon — until we shot the last one exactly a century ago.) Read more...