biff44
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Cell towers and bees
What do you guys think of this? Emag pollution possibly causing the worker bees to lose their navigational skills, and not be able to return to the hive?
https://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_mobile-towers-threaten-honey-bees-in-kerala-study_1286577
Added after 5 minutes:
I am always skeptical of "a study" performed by "by a team of environmentalists" (ala Al Gore!).
I was wondering if anyone with an actual electrical engineering degree out there knows of a bee colony on their place. You could hook up a 1/2 watt microwave oscillator/antenna, and report on if you see the colony being affected adversely.
Seems pretty unlikely, since a cell phone's field dies down so quickly, AND bee narivation is most likely based on Static Magnetic, v.s. Varying Electromagnetic fields. Still, it is worth confirming or disproving. Possibly the magnetic field sensor apparatus gets either heated by microwaves when nearby, or overloaded (like a receiver front end being saturated)?? Is the effect (if real) based on heating energy available, or a specific modulation type?
Added after 13 minutes:
ALso, since cell towers are a hundred+ feet in the air, and bees are only 10 feet in the air, the field strength to possibly cause this is important. If there is an effect, what are the field strength threshold limits. In other words, even if there is an effect, it might not be a problem at all for cell towers above a certain distance from the ground.
Also, if there is an effect, is it localized only to the area of constant emission, or does a short exposure cause long-term damage to the bees.
Jeez, the more I think about this, the more this sounds like an excellent grad student study!!!
What do you guys think of this? Emag pollution possibly causing the worker bees to lose their navigational skills, and not be able to return to the hive?
https://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_mobile-towers-threaten-honey-bees-in-kerala-study_1286577
Added after 5 minutes:
I am always skeptical of "a study" performed by "by a team of environmentalists" (ala Al Gore!).
I was wondering if anyone with an actual electrical engineering degree out there knows of a bee colony on their place. You could hook up a 1/2 watt microwave oscillator/antenna, and report on if you see the colony being affected adversely.
Seems pretty unlikely, since a cell phone's field dies down so quickly, AND bee narivation is most likely based on Static Magnetic, v.s. Varying Electromagnetic fields. Still, it is worth confirming or disproving. Possibly the magnetic field sensor apparatus gets either heated by microwaves when nearby, or overloaded (like a receiver front end being saturated)?? Is the effect (if real) based on heating energy available, or a specific modulation type?
Added after 13 minutes:
ALso, since cell towers are a hundred+ feet in the air, and bees are only 10 feet in the air, the field strength to possibly cause this is important. If there is an effect, what are the field strength threshold limits. In other words, even if there is an effect, it might not be a problem at all for cell towers above a certain distance from the ground.
Also, if there is an effect, is it localized only to the area of constant emission, or does a short exposure cause long-term damage to the bees.
Jeez, the more I think about this, the more this sounds like an excellent grad student study!!!
