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In This Fantastic Issue:
Mental Armageddon: The Quest for Mind Control
Radionics: Mind Machines for Better Health
Mark David Chapman: Lone Nut or CIA Assassin?
America and Bio-Weapons: A Troubling Ethos
The Healing Sounds of Jonathan Goldman
And so much more, including book, music, and movie reviews, exhibit  listings, your fall horoscope, and conference listings!

Genetic tests find link between colony collapse and little-known microbe.

Scientists have found a new prime suspect in the deaths of about a quarter of America's honeybees, a mystery that could take a multibillion-dollar toll on the nation's agricultural industry.

Months of genetic testing have fingered a virus that was first reported in Israel just three years ago and may have passed through Australia on its way to the United States. The correlation between Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus and the mysterious bee disease — known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD — was reported Thursday on the journal Science's Web site.

Although the scientists behind the research cautioned that they haven't yet cracked the case, their study provides enough curious coincidences to keep even the fictional detective (and beekeeper) Sherlock Holmes buzzing.

The economic effect of the bee disappearances goes far beyond the lost honey: In fact, the bee industry's primary impact is felt through the crops that the insects pollinate — products that are valued at $14 billion to $20 billion annually. Since Colony Collapse Disorder first came to light last year, the malady has affected an estimated 23 percent of the nation’s beekeeping operations, with losses of up to 90 percent. Other countries are reporting mysterious bee losses as well.

The disorder is characterized by the rapid disappearance of a colony's bees, even if there are adequate stores of food in the hive. The bees just seem to fly off into oblivion — hinting that the malady somehow affects the insects’ navigational sense or learning ability.

For months, researchers have been struggling to figure out the causes of CCD. Some even proposed that cell-phone radiation was disrupting bee colonies. Penn State entomologist Diana Cox-Foster, the lead author of the Science report, said the cell-phone theory was on the bottom of the list of suspects. But she said it's likely that several factors are contributing to the bee disappearances — including environmental stresses, pesticides, viruses and parasitic Varroa mites, which all weaken the bees' immune systems.

The latest research moves Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus to the top of the list as a "significant marker" for Colony Collapse Disorder, the researchers reported. And they said the technique they used could be applied to other disease outbreaks as well, even those that afflict humans.

The scientific sleuths began their investigation early this year by sampling bees from four colonies that suffered a collapse, and two healthy colonies. They also took samples from apparently healthy bees imported from Australia and royal jelly from China. Royal jelly is a special food secreted by bees that is also used in cosmetics.

Those samples were run through gene-sequencing machines and meticulously analyzed. The researchers subtracted out the honeybee genome itself, then identified the genetic markers of bacteria, fungi and viruses that were left over. A similar technique was recently used to identify 182 species of bacteria living on human skin.

Penn State's Edward Holmes concentrated on an in-depth analysis of viruses found in the bee samples. "This is breaking new ground in trying to look at how viruses work in this class of animals," he told reporters Wednesday during a pre-publication teleconference.

"We found a remarkably high viral burden in bee populations. ... We characterize in this paper seven different viruses that circulate in bee populations. Only one of them was consistently associated with CCD and royal jelly," he said.

That was Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, or IAPV — a little-known bug that sets bees' wings shivering and eventually causes paralysis. IAPV-afflicted bees are typically found dead outside their hives. IAPV was also detected in the Australian bees as well as two of the four Chinese royal jelly samples.

These initial clues led the researchers to look for IAPV and other suspected pathogens in more bee samples. They checked the genetic sequences for bees collected over the past three years from 30 colonies that suffered a collapse and 21 healthy colonies. The presence of IAPV was found to be the best indicator for Colony Collapse Disorder, with a 96.1 percent correlation.

"I hope no one goes away with the idea that we've actually solved the problem," Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service told reporters. "We still have a great deal of research to do to resolve why bees are dying in the U.S. and elsewhere."

Among the questions yet to be answered:

    * Is IAPV really a cause, or will it turn out that vulnerability to the virus is merely a consequence of the disease?
    * How and when did IAPV get into the United States?
    * Why did the Australian bees (and even a few American bees) seem healthy even though they were carriers of the virus?
    * What roles are played by other bugs that were found in the bee samples, such as the Kashmir bee virus and Nosema fungi?
    * If the cause or causes can be definitively identified, what can be done to stop the collapse?

The first task ahead is to confirm the linkage with the virus and figure out the actual mechanism behind Colony Collapse Disorder. Not everyone is convinced IAPV will turn out to be the culprit. Researchers from the U.S. Army and Montana-based Bee Alert Technology have turned up IAPV and other viruses in sick and healthy bees — but have not found any pattern of correlation.

"For the good of the industry, we wish they had a smoking gun and a quick answer, but we're not convinced they're there," Bee Alert's Jerry Bromenshenk told msnbc.com. He said he and his colleagues have turned up more than a dozen suspect viruses, including "a bunch we're still scratching our heads over."

Scientists suspect that some sort of organism will turn out to be the leading cause of the bee collapse, whether it's IAPV, a different virus or a combination of bugs. That's because irradiating beehives appears to make them safe for recolonization, Pettis said.

The Australian connection is another line of investigation: The United States allowed the import of packaged Australian bees in 2004, and reports of bee disappearances began soon afterward, Pettis noted. That may be how IAPV came into the country, though Pettis said it's also possible the virus was here before that time.

Colin Henderson, one of Bromenshenk's colleagues at Bee Alert, said it was still premature to assume that the virus was passed from Australia to America. Pettis said tests of bee samples that were taken in the United States and frozen before 2004 could shed light on whether there's a connection or not.

If Australian bees are carrying the virus, why aren't bee colonies collapsing Down Under? Pettis noted that the Australian bees aren't afflicted by Varroa mites, which have decimated America's wild bee population in recent years. As a result, the Australians may have weathered the stress of IAPV better than their American cousins. "That alone could account for the differences between the two countries," he said.

In the weeks ahead, the researchers behind the Science study will try combining IAPV with other stress factors to see if they can experimentally create the conditions that tip a healthy bee colony into a collapse.

Is there a 100 percent solution?
Pettis said it's still too early to propose putting new restrictions on bee imports. "We're looking at the science behind it and what we feel needs to be done, but no decisions have been made at this time," he said.

Just to be safe, beekeepers should refrain from using imported royal jelly in their hives, he said.

Pettis said Colony Collapse Disorder was almost certainly the result of a "combination of things," and he didn't expect a magic antiviral bullet to appear anytime soon. "We're really right now going to have to rely on beekeepers to continue just to manage nutrition, parasitic mites, Nosema, things like that — and try to keep bees as healthy as possible," Pettis told msnbc.com.

There's more hope on the horizon: Recent research in Israel indicates that some bees have become resistant to IAPV by incorporating the virus' genetic code into their own genes. Creating virus-resistant strains of bees, either through genetic modification or old-fashioned breeding, "is a very intriguing idea," Pettis said.

At the same time, the strategy used to track down the genetic correlation between Colony Collapse Disorder and the suspect virus provides a "road map for rigorously and efficiently addressing outbreaks of infectious disease," said W. Ian Lipkin, a molecular biologist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health who was the corresponding author for the Science study.

"I really do think that these new technologies will revolutionize our approach to epidemiology and the characterizing of outbreaks of infectious disease," he said.

If the strategy were available in 2003, public-health experts might have been able to track down the roots of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in much less time than the months that were required back then, Lipkin said.

"We would be able to get similar sorts of answers in as short as a week," he said.

Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20612274/

On Saturday night, Sept. 1, the frantic calls started coming in around 8 p.m., from New York City all the way south to South Carolina: fireballs from the sky. Burning boats. Flares. Strobe lights on the water.

As well, a mysterious giant "fireball" was spotted exploding over the ocean off the Jersey Shore, but officials had no idea last night what it was.

The unidentified falling object was first seen at about 8:40 p.m. by people on Normandy Beach in Ocean County, and was also spotted as far away as Fire Island and South Carolina, officials said.

"It was dispatched as a fireball, out over the ocean, going into the ocean," Deputy Chief Tim Cook of the Toms River, N.J., Fire Department told The Post.

At least 15 witnesses on the beach all described the same thing, he said.

"It was a large fireball that came down and sort of dropped down into the ocean."

Coast Guard cutters and helicopters were dispatched, but after several hours, the investigators found no sign of distress, no debris. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was not missing any commercial aircraft. There were no distress beacons or mayday calls, the authorities said. So at 11 p.m., the Coast Guard called off the search.

Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Nyx Cangemi said "It's a real mystery."

The FAA also had no idea what it was.

"We have no planes reported missing," said agency spokesman Jim Peters who said he checked with area airports and nearby McGuire Air Force Base.

Some officials speculated that it may have been a comet or a meteor, but a spokeswoman with the New Jersey Astrological Association said, "It's news to us."

The rare Aurigid meteor shower - which produces blue and green lights - was expected to take place Saturday night, and may have been to blame.

It may have taken the East Coast by surprise, however, because astronomers had predicted that the meteor shower would appear only on the West Coast.

Source: NY Post
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09022007/news/regionalnews/fiery_ufo_blows_up_off_n_j_.htm

Buying these environmentally friendly cars often depends on where you live.

On a recent run from Boston to Cape Cod, I test drove the 2008 Honda Accord, the latest version of this family favorite. The new Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine that's cleaner than many hybrid systems.

There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.

Not only can't you buy one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act—in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off—anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only for the special states.

So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities.

That's amazing stuff. But what's more amazing is how few people have a clue that the gas-powered, internal combustion engine could ever be this clean.

Naturally, no company wants to bring too much attention to a car that most people can't buy, unless it's Ferrari. And there's the catch. PZEV models are already available from Toyota, Ford, Honda, GM, Subaru, Volvo and VW. They're scrubbed-up versions of familiar models, from the VW Jetta to the Subaru Outback. But chances are, you've never heard of them.

These cars aren't the only green leaf that's being dangled over our heads. The sweet-looking, sporty-handling Nissan Altima Hybrid borrows its hybrid system from the Toyota Camry, and sipped fuel at 32 mpg during my week-long test drive here in New York. But once again, if you'd love to buy the Nissan and burn less fuel, you're out of luck—unless you live in California or the Northeast.

It's not all the fault of the car companies. The crazy quilt of environmental regulations is forcing carmakers to design and build two versions of the same cars. And it costs real money to make a car this green. So in states where there are no regulations to force their hand, automakers don't want to have to boost their prices for the green versions — or to simply eat the extra cost and make less profit.

Honda appears to be doing just that. It currently charges Californians and other green-staters about $150 extra for these solid-citizen models. But experts suggest that it costs carmakers closer to $400 a pop to install the gear.

Another issue: The PZEV cars don't get any better mileage than conventional versions. Would most self-interested Americans even pay a lousy 100 bucks for cleaner air that doesn't put fuel savings back in their pocket? "With hybrids, the selling point is fuel economy, so there's a dollar amount on that," said William Walton, Honda's product planning chief for U.S. cars. "We want to give people the cleanest vehicles we can produce, but how much are people willing to pay for clean air?"

Then again, so what if Honda or others lose a few million at first? Toyota clearly went into the red on every Prius it sold in the early years, but shrewdly viewed that cash as an investment to create buzz and build a loyal following. Today, Toyota dealers can barely keep the Prius in stock—and the company has surrounded itself with a green halo that's priceless.

As often as automakers express envy and resentment over Toyota's image, you might think Honda would be filming TV ads, erecting billboards, shouting from rooftops that the Accord is the world's cleanest six-cylinder car. In the green game that Toyota has played like a chess master, it seems like this is a lost opportunity for Honda, Nissan and the rest to siphon off some of Toyota's goodwill.

So give Honda's talented engineers credit for this clean-burning Accord. But give its marketing department a big, smoggy raspberry for keeping it a virtual secret—and keeping it off-limits to buyers in 42 states.

Source: MSN
http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024974