Global Bee Populations Declining

The future of flowering plants is at stake, not to mention the global food supply.

Apiarists, or beekeepers, say that bees pollinate one out of every three bites of food. Bees carry out most of the pollination throughout the world. Flowering plants depend on bees in order to reproduce.

Recently, over a third of the domestic honeybee colonies in the United States has disappeared. Beekeepers call it Colony Collapse Disorder (CCS), it is slowly destroying honeybees worldwide. Many people say that pesticides are to blame for weakened bee immune systems, which could open a way for CCS to infect a colony.

If bees were to die out, one of two things would happen: We would lose most of the flowering plants throughout the world or we would have to pollinate trillions of flowers by hand in order for flowering plants to survive.

In China, honeybees have died out in one province, forcing the residents to pollinate thousands of pear trees by hand in order to maintain their struggling agrarian economy. Residents say that this process is very difficult and time-consuming, but it is the only way to keep their livelihood.

Despite all of these losses, beekeepers remain optimistic that honeybees will recover, citing that they have lost fewer colonies this years than last year. Maybe this positive trend will continue.

Information found at CNN.com and PBS.org

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/09/10/last.beekeeper.film/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/introduction/38/

Bill Gates Seeks to Control Hurricanes

This week, Bill Gates and several other scientists received criticism from submitted patents for hurricane suppression technologies by scientists around the world.

This plan is supposed to cool the ocean water immediately surrounding an approaching storm. For this to happen, Gates and his colleagues suggest having large tub like barges placed in front of storms to pump warm ocean water down to the depths while bringing cold water up at the same time. This would hopefully lessen the power of the storm by the time it makes landfall.

William Gray, a renowned scientist in the field of hurricanes, doubts that the project would work. Gray thinks that it is not possible to bring that much cold water up in such a short amount of time.

Gray thinks, however, that the program could only be feasible if the barges were set out before the hurricane season began, which might pose economic problems if no storms were to show up to the party in that year.

Cost is the biggest factor that keeps this from being successful. Many people thinks that the cost outweighs the potential benefit. However, a multibillion dollar project might prevent hundreds of billions of dollars in damage that come globally because of these storms each year.

Information found at CNN.com -

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/28/hurricanes.gates.gray/index.html

Swine Flu Information

One dose of swine flu vaccine is likely to provide enough protection from the H1N1 virus, an Australian based agency said Friday.

These results are promising as the amount used for each vaccination will go down. This makes it possible to distribute less vaccine to more people. As the swine flu is spreading, more people are taking precautions against the virus that has already killed many people across the globe, most apparently in Mexico.

Government officials are planning for a major pandemic this flu season. President Obama has already held a press conference related to the H1N1 virus in which he encouraged Americans to wash their hands more frequently and to practice better hygiene.

Colleges and Universities are playing their parts as well. Recent developments at Utah Valley University indicate that the school is purchasing hand sanitizer units to go throughout the halls and buildings on campus. UVU is also considering a conversion to fully automatic toilet systems to replace the manual systems currently in use in all buildings except the Sorensen Student Center a source in the custodial department said on Thursday.

Those who have the greatest risk with H1N1 are the elderly, children, and pregnant women. It is recommended that these people seek vaccination and treatment as soon as possible.

Information found at USAToday.com -

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-10-flu-vaccine_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-09-swine-flu-college_N.htm

Majority of Adults Can't Digest Milk

Know someone Lactose intolerant? A new study shows that sixty percent of adults around the world cannot digest milk. The International Society for Computational Biology recently published a paper in their monthly journal which brings to light the ability of stomachs to digest milk or not.

The digestion of milk is linked to the enzyme lactase, which is produced by the stomach in order to digest lactose -- the principle sugar in milk. Adults with European ancestry comprise the largest group of people to be able to digest milk due to a genetic variation not commonly found among other peoples of the world.

This genetic variation originated as recently as 10,000 years ago and is believed to have become widespread in Europe as early as 7,500 years ago when man first started dairying cows for their milk as a food source. The paper confirmed that lactase persistence among Europeans did not come as a nutritional need to supplement Vitamin D. The authors of this study included Yuval Itan, Adam Powell, Mark A. Beaumont, Joachim Burger and Mark G. Thomas.

This comes as a glimpse as to why the U.S. is the world's largest producer and consumer of dairy products, followed closely by the members of the European Union.

Information found at USAToday.com -

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-08-30-lactose-intolerance_N.htm