For some reason this research sounds like it was done by that short criminal guy from the Princess Bride (you know... the one who gets poisoned?)
Check out this quote from one of the Authors:
"This required a particularly nasty experiment, in which we inoculated colonies with the most virulent disease of honeybees that is known, the dreaded American foulbrood disease," said Seeley.
See the reason for the experiment below the fold...
The reason for the experiment is actually pretty funny in itself. It seems that queen bees can be quite promiscuous - they go out looking for sperm from many many male bees when they only really 'need' one mans sperm.
The reason for this? health of the hive. This is where "the dreaded American foulbrood disease" comes in. The authors infected hives of bees with "the dreaded American foulbrood disease" and looked at whether how many men the queen bee collected sperm from impacted the survival of the hive. "Sure enough, the more genetically diverse colonies derived from multiple fathers were significantly less affected by the disease several months later. "
The take home lessons here:
Collect as much sperm as possible (for example in the spermcube)
and watch out for "the dreaded American foulbrood disease"!
If you realllly want, here's the summary from physorg
Comments
You don't remember Vizzini?
Inconceivabls!!!
Posted by: natural cynic | December 11, 2006 12:24 PM
haha... thanks! I was too lazy to look up his name. I hardly know my own relatives names though... haha
Posted by: steve | December 11, 2006 12:36 PM