Planet Earth

Study Shows Growing Hemp is a Powerful Tool to Fight Bee Population Decline

As the world population of honeybees continues to decline at a dangerous rate, a new study from Colorado State University purports to have found the answer to quell the decline—hemp. The reason hemp is such a boon to the bee population is simple, it is a great source of pollen.

Because the hemp plant provides such a massive amount of pollen, it will provide them with the resources they need to sustain and grow their populations.

As Forbes points out:

According to researchers, most hemp crops flower between July and September, coinciding with a lack of pollen production from other farm crops.
Over 2,000 bees (and 23 different types of bee, including the European honeybee) were collected during the study. The 23 bee types represent 80% of all types in the region.
This discovery points to hemp as a new pollen source for bees and could help sustain their populations.
Bee colonies have been declining in the U.S. due to stressors such as pests, pesticide exposure and poor nutrition from a lack of pollen, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Researchers noted that although “hemp does not produce any nectar, the pollen rich nature of the flowers can make hemp an ecologically valuable crop.” However, they also noted that as “cultivation of hemp continues to expand, we expect insect pests on hemp to also become prevalent. Our results documenting bee diversity in flowering hemp provides the impetus for the development of integrated pest management plans that protect pollinators while controlling pests.”

As TFTP reported last year, another study showed that mushrooms could have a powerful effect on bees by helping them combat the viruses that have been killing their colonies.

According to the results of this study, which was titled “Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduces Viruses in Honey Bees,” researchers were looking for a way to combat the highly infectious viruses that were wiping out global honey bee populations, and they started looking at mushrooms when they noticed bees were seeking out the fungus:

“BEES HAVE BEEN OBSERVED FORAGING ON MUSHROOM MYCELIUM, SUGGESTING THAT THEY MAY BE DERIVING MEDICINAL OR NUTRITIONAL VALUE FROM FUNGI. FUNGI ARE KNOWN TO PRODUCE A WIDE ARRAY OF CHEMICALS WITH ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY, INCLUDING COMPOUNDS ACTIVE AGAINST BACTERIA, OTHER FUNGI, OR VIRUSES. WE TESTED EXTRACTS FROM THE MYCELIUM OF MULTIPLE POLYPORE FUNGAL SPECIES KNOWN TO HAVE ANTIVIRAL PROPERTIES.”

The study found that extracts from amadou and reishi fungi reduced the levels of honey bee Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) and Lake Sinai Virus (LSV) with colonies that were fed Ganoderma resinaceum extract showing “a 79-fold reduction in DWV and a 45,000-fold reduction in LSV compared to control colonies,” which brought researchers to the conclusion that “honey bees may gain health benefits from fungi and their antimicrobial compounds.”

Paul Stamets, lead author of the study and founder of Fungi Perfecti, a business focused on promoting the cultivation of mushrooms, told ABC News that he worked with researchers from Washington State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the study.

“This is a natural product and [it’s showing] tremendous results in reducing the viruses of bees,” Stamets said, noting that the mushrooms are “the first antivirals to reduce viruses in bees.”

Published by Nature Scientific Reports, the results of the study noted that over the last decade, while the demand for honey bees has increased, the annual colony losses have continued to increase, usually by more than 30 percent each year.

Researchers began paying attention to the natural habits of the bees, which led them to study why the bees were foraging directly on mushrooms. According to the study:

“HONEY BEES HAVE BEEN OBSERVED FORAGING DIRECTLY ON MYCELIUM GROWING IN OUTDOOR BEDS, LEADING TO SPECULATION THAT THEY MAY BE PROCURING A NUTRITIONAL OR MEDICINAL GAIN. THIS BEHAVIOR MAY REPRESENT A NOVEL FACET OF SOCIAL IMMUNITY, GIVEN THAT A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT HONEY BEES SELF-MEDICATE USING PLANT-DERIVED SUBSTANCES. IN THIS STUDY, WE EVALUATED EXTRACTS DERIVED FROM THE MYCELIA OF SEVERAL POLYPORE MUSHROOM SPECIES FOR ACTIVITY AGAINST TWO MAJOR HONEY BEE VIRUSES IN VIVO IN BOTH LABORATORY AND FIELD STUDIES. IN BOTH CASES, REDUCTIONS IN DWV AND LSV TITERS OCCURRED IN BEES THAT WERE FED MYCELIAL EXTRACTS IN SUCROSE SYRUP.”

Stamets also told ABC News that he was initially invited to submit his mushroom extract samples to the Department of Defense’s “Project BioShield” following the 9/11 attacks when the government warned of a possible “biological attack” and the extracts he provided were found to be “extraordinarily active.”

The power of mushrooms is now having the same effect on fragile honey bees, and the study found that the extracts could almost double the lifespan of caged bees while simultaneously working to reduces their viral count.

One of the most incredible things about this study is that the researchers took the time to pay attention to the elements in nature that honey bees were attracted to, and they found that the bees were instinctively foraging for a substance that helped to protect them.

The study is also yet another “win” for magic mushrooms, and as The Free Thought Project has reported over the years, there is no shortage of wonders that come from mushrooms, which include treatment for depression, opioid addiction, PTSD, and mental illness—just to name a few.

About the Author

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.

**This article (Study Shows Growing Hemp is a Powerful Tool to Fight Bee Population Decline) was originally featured at The Free Thought Project and is re-posted here with permission.**

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Planet Earth

Scientists Dug Through Teens’ Trash to See What They’re Smoking

One person’s trash can be another’s treasure — and trash from teens might be the foundation for insightful new medical research.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the details of a “garbology” study conducted by a pair of University of California, San Francisco, researchers in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Over a period of about eight months, the researchers walked the grounds surrounding 12 public high schools in Northern California, collecting any litter they could find related to smoking or vaping — refuse that included everything from cigarette butts to vape cartridges and cigarillo wrappers.

In total, the pair gathered 893 waste items, and their analysis seems to support claims that teens are drawn to flavored vaping products — 73 out of the 74 pod caps the researchers collected boasted flavors other than tobacco.

The researchers were also able to make connections between teens’ socioeconomic status and their nicotine and cannabis products by examining the demographics of families at each school.

“Our study novelly detected the under-addressed problem of flavored little cigars and cigarillos in low-income youth populations,” researcher Yogi Hale Hendlin said in a press release. “Youth e-cigarette use — as epidemic as it is — seems to be lopsided towards higher-income student populations, with combustible tobacco product waste found in higher concentrations in lower-income schools.”

Aside from providing insights into teens’ smoking and vaping habits, the study also shines a light on another, more obvious problem: that there’s a whole lot of smoking-related trash around high schools.

“These toxic products are contaminating school environments and surrounding areas, going down storm drains and contaminating the bay,” researcher Jeremiah Mock said in the press release, later adding that “action is needed to reduce youth tobacco smoking and cannabis access and use, and to eliminate environmental contamination from these products.”

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Planet Earth

Mammoths survived until just 4,000 years ago

Image Credit: CC BY 2.5 Public Library of Science

Mammoths almost made it to modern times.

A population of woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth at the time the Egyptian pyramids were being built.

Perhaps the most recognizable of all extinct Ice Age mammals, the majestic woolly mammoth is often associated with a time long before modern human civilization started to appear on the scene.

Incredibly however, despite most mammoths disappearing between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago, a few isolated populations managed to hold on against all the odds.

Now according to a new study by an international team of scientists, the last remaining population of mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean up until 4,000 years ago.

By examining the isotope compositions of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and strontium from their bones, the researchers were able to determine that, unlike other isolated mammoth populations that died out due to environmental changes, the Wrangel Island mammoths may have instead succumbed to a sudden series of events – perhaps extreme weather conditions or an encroachment by human hunters.

“It’s easy to imagine that the population, perhaps already weakened by genetic deterioration and drinking water quality issues could have succumbed after something like an extreme weather event,” said study co-author Prof Herve Bocherens from the University of Tubingen.

Source: SciTech Daily

Planet Earth

Huge Meteor Fireball Illuminates Night Sky Over London, England

It was previously reported that a large asteroid was approaching Earth. Its diameter is approximately 190 to 430 metres, making it twice as large as the famous Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

According to eyewitnesses, London has been illuminated by a meteor, with some of them managing to record the dramatic footage.

Some of the witnesses were in Southeast London when they saw a flash in the sky.

Anyone just see a super bright meteor over london travelling northwards? Am in South London and it shone white/yellow that burnt to a bright blue green flash.. happened at 7.55pm gmt #london #meteor @VirtualAstro
— Robert Currie (@robertscurrie) September 24, 2019

Those who saw this unusual phenomenon got on social media to discuss it.

Did anyone else see a super bright meteor, green blue in color falling at around 8pm? #meteor #london
— D.Papadimitriou (@dimitriskp) September 24, 2019