I like to give shout outs to citizen science projects even when they are outside my field. I was listening to Science Friday last week and they had a segment on the vanishing bees. They talked about urban bee keeping and colony collapse disorder as well as a few citizen science projects to observe and chart how many bees are where. The Great Pollinator Project focuses on watching bees in New York City. BeeSpotter currently is collecting data from people in Illinois but will expand to other states. My favorite is the Great Sunflower Project. They collect data nationwide The Great Sunflower Project is signing people up for 2010. They will send you free sunflower seeds to plant. You then watch and see how long it takes five bees to visit your sunflower.
So start planning for 2010 and get your sunflower seeds now!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
Posts
3 comments:
I was hoping maybe they already had some answers on the bee decline. It's scary.
I watched a show on CCD. They explained that bees leave and will not come back to the hive if they become ill. They actually "sacrifice" themselves for the good of the rest of the hive.
From what I've heard it is a MAJOR problem...for all of us. I like the sunflower idea, but living in an apartment I can not participate.
Post a Comment