http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (AP)—Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on a fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined. http://phys.org/news288172971.html Biology Sun, 19 May 2013 09:03:04 EST news288172971 (Phys.org) —In a paper published today in the peer-reviewed science journal PLoS ONE, researchers have presented a new model to explore how changes in food availability might influence honeybee colony growth. http://phys.org/news287216901.html Biology Wed, 08 May 2013 08:20:02 EST news287216901 A new U.S. report blames a combination of problems for a mysterious and dramatic disappearance of honeybees across the country since 2006. http://phys.org/news286721197.html Biology Thu, 02 May 2013 13:46:46 EST news286721197 Small hive beetles are indigenous to Africa, but have been damaging beehives in the United States and Australia for several years. Rowan Sprague, a University of Virginia fourth-year student, wants to stop the half-centimeter pests. http://phys.org/news283503829.html Biology Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:30:01 EST news283503829 Wild pollinators – primarily wild bees, flies, and other insects – are at least as important, and often more efficient, at pollinating agricultural crops than domestic honey bee colonies, according to two new studies published in Science and the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. http://phys.org/news282472554.html Biology Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:10:01 EST news282472554 (Phys.org) —Ever wonder how the density of flowers in a patch influences the kinds of insects that visit it? Carla Essenberg, a former graduate student in the Department of Biology at the University of California, Riverside, did, and proceeded to develop a mathematical "foraging model" that explores how flower visitors with diverse characteristics distribute themselves across flower patches differing from each other in floral density. http://phys.org/news281863662.html Biology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:00:02 EST news281863662 (AP)—In an almond orchard in California's Central Valley, bee inspector Neil Trent pried open a buzzing hive and pulled out a frame to see if it was at least two-thirds covered with bees. http://phys.org/news280299367.html Biology Sun, 17 Feb 2013 06:00:01 EST news280299367 (Phys.org)—Honeybees never cease to amaze us... their bite contains a natural anesthetic. This discovery was made by a team of Greek and Cypriot researchers, in collaboration with the CNRS Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes et Spéciation. In a study published in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers show that bites from domestic honeybees (Apis mellifera) contain a compound, 2-heptanone (2-H), that acts as an efficient natural anesthetic. This finding has been patented, so 2-H can now be commercially produced as a local anesthetic, which offers the additional advantage of low toxicity to humans and animals. http://phys.org/news273219062.html Biology Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:11:18 EST news273219062 (Phys.org)—Unlike other species, humans speak to each other in remarkably diverse ways. Some of our 6,000 to 8,000 languages use clicks (!Kung). Others don't differentiate between nouns and verbs (Straits Salish). Still others pack a whole sentence into a single word (Cayuga). In comparison, the communication systems of other animals show precious little variation within species; vervet monkeys use the same communicative signals across their geographical range, just as honeybees, bacteria and every other species each have one way of communicating. http://phys.org/news271408396.html Other Sciences Tue, 06 Nov 2012 07:13:30 EST news271408396 Honeybees are also discerning art critics, according to scientists from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute and the Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil. http://phys.org/news270203609.html Biology Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:34:58 EST news270203609 (Phys.org)—You buy a cider doughnut at the apple orchard and they quickly find you. Your kid opens a sports drink at the soccer field and they show up. You dine on the deck on a warm afternoon and sure enough, there they are.  http://phys.org/news269075595.html Biology Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:13:23 EST news269075595 The impact of crop pesticides on honeybee colonies is unlikely to cause colony collapse, according to a paper in the journal Science today. More research is now needed to predict the impact of widely-used agricultural insecticides, called neonicotinoids, on honeybee populations. http://phys.org/news267367510.html Biology Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:00:20 EST news267367510 The first complete map of the ants' olfactory system has discovered that the eusocial insects have four to fives more odorant receptors—the special proteins that detect different odors—than other insects. http://phys.org/news266511731.html Biology Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:02:24 EST news266511731 Pollinating insects contribute to agricultural production in 150 (84%) European crops. These crops depend partly or entirely upon insects for their pollination and yield. The value of insect pollinators is estimated to be €22 billion a year in Europe. Declines in managed pollinators, such as honeybees, and wild pollinator such bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies, are therefore of growing concern as we need to protect food production and the maintain wildflower diversity. http://phys.org/news266125218.html Biology Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:40:28 EST news266125218 Most people are not aware of the fact that 84% of the European crops are partially or entirely dependent on insect pollination. While managed honeybees pollinate certain crops, wild bees, flies and wasps cover a very broad spectrum of plants, and thus are considered the most important pollinators in Europe. http://phys.org/news264416614.html Biology Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:04:26 EST news264416614 (Phys.org) -- An international research breakthrough with bees means machines might soon be able to see almost as well as humans. http://phys.org/news256199731.html Biology Mon, 14 May 2012 07:36:25 EST news256199731 In recent years the economic value of pollination-dependent crops has substantially increased around the world. As a team of researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Freiburg headed by the UFZ wrote in an article entitled "Spatial and temporal trends of global pollination benefit" in the open-access journal PLoS ONE the value of ecological pollination services was around 200 billion US dollars in 1993 and rose to around 350 billion US dollars in 2009. For the first time, the researchers were also able to show in which regions of the world pollination plays a particularly important role and agriculture is furthermore particularly dependent upon the pollination carried out by animals. http://phys.org/news254741965.html Biology Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:39:50 EST news254741965 (Phys.org) -- One of the really cool things about science is how the mundane can suddenly seem not just interesting, but truly fascinating. One great example of this is the bee hive, specifically the honeybee hive, where it appears that little of interest is going on when viewed as an outsider. But then, some people spend an enormous amount of time studying what goes on in such a hive, and then go on to explain it to others, and then just like that, the mundane, becomes exciting. One such researcher is Dr Margaret Couvillon, who along with her colleagues at the University of Sussex, have found, as they describe in their paper published in Biology Letters, that when forager bees return to the hive to report on their findings, by doing a little waggle dance, they tend to do a better job of it when prancing vertically versus horizontally. http://phys.org/news254043363.html Biology Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:36:18 EST news254043363 (AP) -- A common class of pesticide is causing problems for honeybees and bumblebees, important species already in trouble, two studies suggest. http://phys.org/news252248944.html Biology Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:09:13 EST news252248944 Japanese honeybees face a formidable foe in the Asian giant hornet, a fierce predator that can reach 40mm long or larger, but the bees have developed a novel defense mechanism: they create a "hot defensive bee ball," swarming around the hornet and literally cooking it. http://phys.org/news250953483.html Biology Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:00:11 EST news250953483 New research has linked springtime die-offs of honeybees critical for pollinating food crops — part of the mysterious malady called colony collapse disorder — with technology for planting corn coated with insecticides. The study, published in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology, appears on the eve of spring planting seasons in some parts of Europe where farmers use the technology and widespread deaths of honeybees have occurred in the past. http://phys.org/news250957052.html Biology Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:30:01 EST news250957052 (PhysOrg.com) -- Most higher order animals have some means for “speaking” with enemies or predators. Dogs and cats growl and hiss for example when threatened to let others know not to mess with them. Lower order organisms on the other hand, don’t generally have such a direct means for such communication, thus when an example is found, it’s generally unique. That’s certainly the case for Apis cerana, an Asian honeybee, as a team of international researchers has found. This species of bee has figured out a way to speak very clearly to their gravest threat, as the researchers describe in their paper published in Animal Behavior, by banding together and shaking their abdomens. http://phys.org/news248516571.html Biology Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:23:10 EST news248516571 Bumblebees can use cues from their rivals the honeybees to learn where the best food resources are, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London. http://phys.org/news248440581.html Biology Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:16:31 EST news248440581 (PhysOrg.com) -- Acaricide, a chemical used against Varroa mites that infect honeybees, appears to render bees more susceptible to deformed wing virus infections, according to research published in the January issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Like the mites, these viruses have been identified as potential causes of colony collapse disorder. http://phys.org/news246271856.html Biology Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:10:01 EST news246271856 Smithsonian scientists have discovered two new, closely related bee species: one from Coiba Island in Panama and another from northern Colombia. Both descended from of a group of stingless bees that originated in the Amazon and moved into Central America, the ancestors of Mayan honeybees. The presence of one of these new species on Coiba and Rancheria Islands, and its absence from the nearby mainland, is a mystery that will ultimately shed light on Panama's history and abundant biodiversity. http://phys.org/news238169935.html Biology Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:19:19 EST news238169935 Honeybees can do far more than simply pollinate plants or make honey. The busy creatures also make excellent environmental monitors. This has been demonstrated by Wageningen UR bee researcher Sjef van der Steen. He used swarms of bees to measure the concentration of metals in Maastricht, Buggenum and Hoek van Holland. It turned out that the bees made excellent informers. http://phys.org/news234780242.html Biology Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:44:12 EST news234780242 Scientists in France have discovered that honeybees are at a higher risk of dying from infection by Nosema ceranae (N. ceranae) when they are exposed to low doses of insecticides. The results, presented in the journal PLoS ONE, support the theory that combining more N. ceranae with a high pesticide content in beehives could contribute to colony depopulation. http://phys.org/news234087982.html Biology Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:26:39 EST news234087982 The population of honeybees remains endangered, threatening the world's food supply, and scientists have decided that the best way to save the insects may be to breed a better bee. http://phys.org/news229610440.html Biology Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:40:54 EST news229610440 A study published by the University of Reading's Centre for Agri Environmental Research suggests that honeybees may not be as important to pollination services in the UK than previously supposed. The research was published in the Journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. http://phys.org/news228733496.html Biology Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:05:10 EST news228733496 Bumblebees, solitary bees and other wild pollinating insects are much more important for pollinating UK crops than previously thought, say researchers. http://phys.org/news227442032.html Biology Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:21:32 EST news227442032