A mysterious illness has decimated honeybees around the world. An article in the October 6 edition of The New York Times reported that new research blames a fungs tag-teaming with a virus for the die-off.
A Fortune story two days later took issue with this research. Reporter Katherine Eban pointed to financial ties between Bromenshenk and Bayer AG, the chemical company that produces the pesticides blamed for the neurological disorders that make bees unable to navigate and work.
Janet Raloff, senior editor at Science News, and Beth Daley, environmental reporter for the Boston Globe, will co-host a Saturday mini-tour on this threat to bees, called "colony collapse disorder." Jerry Bromenshenk of the University of Montana in Missoula will lead the mini-tour. Also, a member of the Montana team will lead a network lunch on CCD.
I look forward to learning more about this urgent problem at these sessions. Thanks, Janet and Beth, for putting them together.
