NEW YORK — Talk about a caffeine buzz: A new study says that honeybees get a shot of caffeine from certain flowers and that it perks up their memory.
That spurs them to return to the same plant, boosting its prospects for pollination and the future of the species.
Maybe it should not be a surprise that one of the flowers is the coffee plant. Its nectar offers about as much caffeine concentration as a cup of instant coffee. But some citrus plants serve caffeine too. It is found in the nectar of orange and grapefruit blossoms.
The caffeine helps a bee remember that the flower’s scent promises a tasty payoff, so the bee will seek out those flowers, transferring their pollen, the researchers said.
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Related: Globe Building a Better Bee
Yes, colony collapse disorder is still a major problem, and yet I rarely see it in my newspaper. Instead I get cute little stories like the one above.
"Is it possible that the use of pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, AND GMO’s are killing the bees?"
It's not only possible, it's likely. Pesticides have already been sprayed as a limited hangout; however, my feeling is that last one is where the problem is and that will be the last thing brought up my Mon$anto media.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Many factors found in American bee deaths" by John M. Broder | New York Times, May 03, 2013
WASHINGTON — The devastation of American honeybee colonies is the result of a complex stew of factors, including pesticides, parasites, poor nutrition, and a lack of genetic diversity, according to a comprehensive federal study published Thursday.
The problems affect pollination of US agricultural products worth tens of billions of dollars a year. The report does not place more weight on one factor over another, and it recommends a range of actions and further research.
Honeybees are used to pollinate many crops. Since 2006, millions of bees have been dying in a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.
Sometimes I think they are reading me.
Officials in the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and others involved in the study said there was not enough evidence to support a ban on one group of pesticides.
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Notice there is nothing about GMOs?
Anyhow, how about another Globe jolt or two?
FDA will investigate added caffeine in foods
Monster Beverage sues San Francisco city attorney
The Boston Globe's Morning Dew
Might want to sip and nurse it:
"Drinks’ jolts of caffeine called a risk for military" by Stephanie Armour | Bloomberg News, November 09, 2012
WASHINGTON — US service members in Afghanistan who consumed three or more caffeine-charged energy drinks a day were prone to sleepiness and dozing off while on guard duty, according to a report.
Forty-five percent of those in Afghan combat areas in 2010 were daily users of energy drinks, some of which have the caffeine of one to three cups of coffee, the study said. The finding was published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report.
About 6 percent of adolescent and young males in the US civilian and military populations drink energy drinks each day, the report said. The products, such as those made by Monster Beverage Corp. and Red Bull, can have negative side effects, including caffeine intoxication, and have been the focus of an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration.
Related: Questions mount on energy drinks
‘‘Service members should be educated regarding the potential adverse effects of excessive energy drink consumption on sleep and mission performance and should be encouraged to moderate their energy drink consumption in combat environments,’’ wrote Robin Toblin, the study’s lead author.
Fourteen percent of service members surveyed consumed at least three energy drinks a day. They reported sleeping less, having more sleep disruptions from stress and illness, and falling asleep on guard duty and in briefings more frequently than those who had two or less of the drinks a day. They were also more likely to report sleeping less than four hours a night, on average.
Previous research found that 200 milligrams of caffeine, or one to two energy drinks, improved cognitive performance.
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"ER visits tied to energy drinks double in 4 years, study finds" by Garance Burke | Associated Press, January 18, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — The young man stumbled into the emergency room late one night after a house party, saying his heart wouldn’t stop pounding and he could barely breathe....
Cocaine?
Emergency physician Steve Sun soon found the patient was so dehydrated he was going into kidney failure — one of many troubling cases Sun says he has treated in recent years tied to energy drink consumption.
Sun’s changing caseload appears in line with a new government survey that suggests the number of people seeking emergency treatment after consuming energy drinks has doubled nationwide in the past four years, the same period in which the supercharged drink industry has surged in popularity....
Time for me to get buzzing and go get my Globe and coffee -- and you know what happens if it's not there.
UPDATE:
"The controversy over its latest spot illustrates the fine line that companies must walk when trying to be hip. Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, a marketing firm based in Atlanta, said companies that want the ‘‘street cred’’ of a celebrity may end up losing control of the message they want to convey."
Happening all acro$$ corporate media today, and now I'm buzzing a bit.
