Bill_Nihilist

Bill_Nihilist t1_iwdxtq0 wrote

Reply to comment by prince-surprised-pat in The lifespans of honey bees living in laboratory environments has dropped about 50% over the last 50 years, hinting at possible causes for the worrisome trends across the beekeeping industry, according to new research by University of Maryland entomologists. by Wagamaga

Bro I have bad news: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C8&q=microplastic+epigenetics&btnG=&oq=microplastic+ep

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Bill_Nihilist t1_iwbscn3 wrote

Reply to comment by Wagamaga in The lifespans of honey bees living in laboratory environments has dropped about 50% over the last 50 years, hinting at possible causes for the worrisome trends across the beekeeping industry, according to new research by University of Maryland entomologists. by Wagamaga

>“We're isolating bees from the colony life just before they emerge as adults, so whatever is reducing their lifespan is happening before that point ... This introduces the idea of a genetic component"

Or an epigenetic one? Like, for example, fetal alcohol syndrome obviously isn't a genetic difference, it's the developmental consequence of an environmental effect, but it's happening pre-adulthood. The logic presented here for the bees just doesn't hold up. I suspect the poor graduate student's viewpoint was misrepresented. No sensible scientist would jump to a genetic explanation based on these findings.

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