How Do Bees Fly ?

It has jokingly been said that engineers have proved that bees cannot fly..
It seems that such " heavy " insects with a short wing beat should not..
be able to generate enough lift..
To discover the insects' secrets, engineers..
" filmed hovering bees at 6000 frames per second, " says New Scientist..

The bees ' technique is described as " unusual."
" The wings sweeps back in a 90- degree arc,
then flips over as it returns -- 230 times a second.....
It's like a propeller, where the blade is rotating too,"
explains a member of the research team.....
Their findings may help engineers redesign propellers...
and build more maneuverable aircraft.....

EarthWeek: A Diary of the Planet..
By Steve Newman..

Vanishing Bee's..
The Mysterious disappearance of millions of bees across the United States and Western Europe since last fall threatens honey supplies..
as well as crops that depend on the insects for pollination..

Beekeepers from Pennsylvania to California say they have seen the number of bees in their hives drop by between 50 to 90 percent..
Comparable losses are reported in hives from Britain to Greece..
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says no one has been able to determine
why the bees have vanished , leaving only the queen and sometimes large
amounts of honey..

Experts say the usual causes for bee losses , such as mites , appear not to be the main factor in the so-called " colony collapse disorder."

Beekeepers in Oregon , however ,
say they have not only excaped the losses seen elsewhere ,
but actually have seen their hives thrive with more numerous and robust bees than have been observed in many years...

Pollen The Dust Of Life...

When springtime comes around , bees get busy and pollen fills the air.
For people who suffer from allergies,
pollen seems to be a curse rather then a blessing..

But before we dismiss pollen as just a nuisance of nature,
we should keep in mind the role this unique dust plays..
We may be surprised to learn how much our lives depend on it.

What exactly is pollen ?

The World Book Encyclopedia explains:
" Pollen consists of tiny grains that are produced in the male organs of flowering and cone-bearing-plants."
Simply stated, plants produce pollen in order to reproduce..
As we know , in humans a female egg must be fertilized by a male sperm in order for a child to be produced.
Similarly , the female organ of a flower ( the pistil ) needs pollen from the male organ ( the stamen) order to be fertilized and produce fruit.*

* Fertilization can be either by cross pollination ( pollen delivered from another plant )
or self-pollination ( pollen recieved from the same individual plant ).

Neverless, cross pollination guarantees variety and thus healthier and more resilient plants...

Pollen grains are so tiny that we can hardly see them with the unaided eye;
however, they become apparent under a microscope.

In fact, a viewer can see that both the size and the shape are unique to each particular species.

Since pollen is resistent to decay , it is significant that scientists often study the unique " fingerprint " of the pollen grains they unearth..
They can therby identify plants that people cultivated centuries ago.

Importantly , the distinct characteristics of each type of pollen enable
flowers to recognize the pollen of their own species...

The Way Pollen Travels..

Many plants depend on the air to transport their pollen after it is released
from catkins or cones when they are jostled by the wind..

Water also serves to transport the pollen of some water plants..
Since wind pollination is a hit- and- miss affair, trees and plants that depend on this method of pollination produce astronomical quanitites of pollen..*

* Just one birch catkin, for example , may release over five million grains of pollen , and a typical birch tree will likely have several thousand catkins..*

For people who suffer from hayfever , this proliferation of pollen results in great discomfort..

Although wind effectively helps to pollinate many types of trees and grasses,
flowering plants that do not grow in high densities need a more efficient system..

How is the pollen from such plants dispacted to other like plants that live five miles away ?

By a very effective delivery service provided by bats, birds, and insects !
But , of course , they don't transport pollen from one flower to the another
without a reward...

Flowers offer theses pollinators nector -- a tasty product that is hard for them to refuse..
While reaching to sip the nector , the visitor invariably gets a good dusting of pollen on it's body..
Seeking another taste of nector, it then transports the pollen to the next flower...

Insects do so by far the most pollination , expecially in temporate lands..
They visit countless flowers every day while feeding on nector and pollen.*

* Two pounds of honey requires that bees make about ten million trips to individual flowers.. *

" Probably the most important contribution made by insects to human health and well being,
"explains professor May Berenbaum, is one for which they get little credit: pollination. "

Fruit trees usually have flowers that depend on cross-pollination to produce a good crop.

Hence, you see how important the transportation of pollen is to our well-being...

How Workers Are Enticed..

Flowers have to attract pollinators as well as feed them.
How do flowers do this ?
They may provide pollinators with a warm resting place in the sun.
Also, many flowers lay out some helpfull guidelines in the form of colored spots or stripes...

In this way vistors are informed where they can find nectar..
Advertisments vary greatly from one flower to another..
Some exclude a smell of putrefaction to attract flies..
Others resort to trickery to ensure successful pollination.

Bee orchids, for example , look like bee's ,
and that fools amorous bees into visiting them..
Certain flowers capture insects and release them only when the insects
have preformed their pollination duty.

"Nowhere in the plant kingdom is botanical engineering more delicate,
more precise or more ingenious than in the vital matters of ensuring that flowers are pollinated," writes botanist Malcome Wilkins..

If the Creator hadn't arranged for the pollination of plants by makeing them attractive, millions of plants would not reproduce.

Commenting on the result of that remarkable activity, Jesus said:
" Take a lesson from the lilies of the field , how they are growing;
they do not toil, nor do they spin; but I say to you that not even Solomon
in all his glory was arrayed as one of theses."
{ Matthew 6:25, 28, 29 }

Thanks to pollination , plants thrive and produce the food on which we depend..

True, pollen may cause discomfort to some of us, but we should all be thankfull for the busy pollinators that distribute this dust of life.
Successful harvests depend to a large extent on this marvelous natural process that testifies to the amazing handiwork of our Creator..

Cellular Repulsion....

Studies conducted by German researchers indicate that the growing use of cell phones could..
in some way be responsible for the sudden disappearance of bees seen across America and parts of Europe since last fall..

A limited study conducted at Germany's Landau University has found that
bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby.
Lead researcher Dr Jochen Kuhn said this could provide a " hint " to a possible cause..
of what has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder..
CCD..

The phenomenon has seen entire bee colonies disappear from their hives,
leaving only a queen , eggs and a few immature workers..

Kuhn cautioned that his research was on how cell phone signals might effect learning , and not on CCD..

Dr George Carlo , who headed an extensive study by the U.S. government and mobile phone industry on the hazards..
of mobile phone use during the 1990's, told Britain's Independent newspaper the " possibilty is real " that the use of cell phones could..
be contributing to CCD...

And The World's Most Important Pollinator..
Is....
The honey bee....

Bees and Wasps...

The hairy bodies of bee's pick up pollen as readily as a pair of spectacles
picks up dust , makeing bees ideal pollinators..
Just one bumblebee can carry as many as 15,000 grains of pollen..

Thanks to the introduction of bumblebees from England in the 19th century,
clover fields now flourish in New Zealand , providing vital forage for the country's livestock..

The honeybee is the world's most important pollinator.
It usually concentrates on only one type of flower abundant near it's hive.
Entomologist Christopher O 'Toole calculates that...

" as much as 30 percent of all human food is directly or indirectly dependent
on pollination by bees.

" Bees are needed to pollinate such crops as almonds , apples , plums, cherries, and kiwis.

" Farmers pay the beekeepers for the services each hive provides...

There was a time...
That I was so scared about the killer bee's that were comeing...
The ones that got loose from a lab in Brazil...
They are comeing they warned and they were ..
And they got so close as they were not that far away and were traveling..
They came a long distance allready..
And that was a long long time back and they were makeing it up the coast...
And the warnings were real too.. they were a mean bunch of bee's..
But it fizzled out and I wonder how come they haven't swarmed here yet..
Maybe.. It's like all the other bees...
Whats happening to them...
Maybe what I though was such a good thing...
Is not such a good sign at all...
Though I'm glad they never came here after all...
They went the way of the bees..
It's like they vanished..
Stopped short...
They were comeing pretty fast...
And then they just.. Didn't make it that far...
After all...

Bee verses Computer...

How smart is the common honeybee?
Evidently, far smarter then today's supercomputers..
And they are a marvel of miniaturization..

One of the world's most powerfull computers can attain the amazing processing speed of 16 gigaflops..
In laymans terms, such a computer can perform 16 billion simple arithmetic operations, such as adding two numbers,
each second..
In contrast, a comservative count of all electrical and chemical
events takeing place in a bee's brain shows that the lowly honeybee performs the equivalent of ten trillion operations per second.. Amazing!

The bee does all that while consuming a lot less power then a computer..
According to Byte magazine, " a honeybee's brain dissipates less the 10 microwatts..

It is superior or about seven orders of magnitude to the most efficient of today's manufactured computers."
Hence over ten million bee brains can operate on the power needed for a single 100- watt light bulb....
The most efficent of today's computers use hundreds of millions of times more energy to perform an equivant number of operations...

Yet, the honeybees do far more than computers..

They can see in color, smell, fly, walk, and maintain their balance..
They are able to navigate across long distance to locate sources of nector and then return to the hive
and communicate directions to fellow bees....

They are quite efficient chemists as well..
They add special enzymes to the nector to make honey...
They manufacture beeswax for use in building and repairing their hives..
They prepare special food items, such as royal jelly and beebread, for their young..
They protect their home by recognizing and repelling intruders...
Good housekeepers, they regularly remove garbage and other refuse from the hive..
They control the climate in the hive either by clustering together for warmth in the winter or by fanning
in fresh air and sprinkling water during the summer..

When their home becomes overcrowded, bees are smart enough to know that some have to leave..
So they raise up a new queen for the old hive, and the old queen and many of the workers swarm to establish a new colony..
First, though, scouts are sent to investigate new sites....
After theses return and compare notes, so to speak, " streaker" bees lead the swarm to it's new home...

The lowley bees do all of this without any outside assistence or direction..
They function independently. Yet, supercomputers require teams of programmers, engineers, and technicians, No contest!
Bee's truely are a marvel of miniaturization....

Waste Not, Want Not..

In our modern consumer society, the safe disposal of garbage and dangerous waste products has become a nightmare..
In contrast, God's creation is a marvel of economy and recycling.. Take, for example, the honeycomb..
Beeswax, the building material of the honeycomb, is an expensive commodity.

A honeybee needs 1/2 ounce of honey and an undetermined amount of pollen to make just 1/32 ounce of beeswax..
How do the bees budget their beewax?
" The wax walls of the honeycomb's cells come together in threes at 120- degree angles,
forming a regular array of hexagons," explains the book..

" By Nature's Design." This pattern lets the bees minimize the amount of wax they use,
while providing a rigid structure in which to store honey."

So an ingenious structure combines beauty of form with economy of function,
and it can be recycled!