It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
I don't find this shocking. There are a few things worth pointing out, as this relates to the bigger picture of the risks and gains posed by technological advance... This could very well be for real, and if so is quite serious. All policy regulating technology is potentially dangers. Many things interrelate in the big picture. If heavy usage of certain areas of the frequency spectrum is killing bees, the correct solutions may be to breed/engineer bees resistant to it. When we discover a type of sonar is killing all the wales, you have to stop until you find a work around that don't start killing things in large numbers. In this case, bees are easier to experiment with, and their breeding is already controlled to a certain degree, so it's highly likely a solution is just going to involve playing god a bit. When regarding the places where public policy could collide with technology, research, and anything backed up with an argument that includes the phrase "playing god", one must remember that some problems can't be ignored, and some solutions like turning off all the cell phones are not reasonable approaches. If one technology is getting us unto a problem, another type of technology will most likely get us out. Unless we just drop the damn ball. I firmly believe that at this point, for the long run of humanity, it might be a good idea to entertain the area of "playing god" for a few decades... We might need to get good at that, in order to solve future problems. Plus, it sounds like fun work. I've found myself wondering before what we would have done if at some point we found out that the Eisenhower Highway System was screwing up migration patterns and killing all the birds.. And what the future equivalent of such a thing might be.. Furthermore, in a continuation of the William Gibson future meme. We already got ADD, now we have CCD.. I can't wait till we get to the point where we have NAS. heh.. Birds, bees, mobile phones, and the apocalypse | 
