Bees baffled by belching car exhausts = GLOBAL HUNGER

Doesnt matter how tasty your dinner is, dump a big pile of excrement next to it and you're unlikely to feel like eating.

Anther mind-bogglingly irrelevant piece of pseudo-science (note the use of "may"). Here's a documented, as opposed to hypothetical, bee problem: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?pagewanted=all.

Could we have a moratorium on "anthropomorphic emissions (might) cause you-name-it" reports please?

How do they explain....

The fact that City Centre Bee Keepers are doing very well and honey production is going up.

Lack of Pesticides perhaps and not Diesel Exhausts?

The reports by Bill Turnbull (BBC) who actually keeps bees was very enlightening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037y0zf

Nowt is a simple as it first seems.

Significant NOx emissions can be caused naturally

Not that anyone here would want to get in the way of an alarmist headline here at El Reg BUT...did you know that nitrogen oxides can also be caused by the natural, biological decomposition of organic material?

This material can be almost anything that biodegrades, even that as expressed by a previous commentor as perhaps being unappetizing (RealBig Al).

In fact "natural" NOx is a major contributor to smog in the spring and fall when temperatures are best for composting.

Perhaps the issue with the experiment is not the mere presence of NOx but an enclosed space and greater than normal quantities of NOx. Kind of like the forced smoking monkey experiments?

Another case of getting the results you wanted by designing the experiment to produce them?

Hmmmmmm.

NOx gases were the problem.

Hmmm... If only there were some sort of technology to address NOx in vehicle exhaust.

Rummages through desk.

Finds old Car Emissions test report.

Confirms NOx was tested at 0.0 ppm.

In the Year of Our Lord 2001.

Modern clean diesels are probably also 0.0 ppm. It's the stupid old buses and stupid old trucks and stupid old heavy equipment and stupid old diesel cars that are belching NOx pollution.

The source is wrong.

NO/NOx is a problem in general, I don't really see why cars are being labelled a major factor, to fix a problem you need to find the source and cars are far from the source.

From the look of these 'tests' (there are videos online), shoving a bee into an exhaust will impair the best of senses, lets face it, if you fill a car with exhaust fumes and sit in it, you die.

NOx is smelly, it's not a food and the bee won't react to it... and slapping a single bee on the head provoking a signal for incoming food after they trained it that way - or did the scientists seemingly fail think of this? Somewhere an education system has failed again.

I half heartedly believe that NOx has a major impact on their ability to detect flowers, especially since the majority of flowers preceding in my garden produce little/no scent, but are extremely vibrant and well pollenated by bees... as are most bees are accustomed to in high NOx areas.

Diesel does produce NO/NOx, but so does petrol (albeit lower), so changing the fuel won't resolve the issue, it will delay the inevitable, especially since this year has hit a 5 year high of new vehicle registrations.

Fracking can cause large amounts of NO and NOx in the atmosphere, equal to that of coal burning and turning all cars to electric ones won't fix the issue, far from it.

Fun Fact: Coal in itself causes more pollution in the air than it's own weight - the very same coal that attributes to the power coming out of your wall socket at home. Electric cars are funny, this will just push the pollution up more.

Whilst technology is reducing the amount produced per X amount of coal, the demand for power is outstripping the benefits as our population is constantly and rapidly expanding, with that there will be more vehicles, more homes to power, which means more emissions.

Alternatively, finding ways to break down NO/NOx would be ideal, back in 2012 "photo-catalytically active" paint was created, this breaks down NO/NOx into nitrates (with the bonus of self-cleaning itself) and extremely small amounts of CO2. I believe you can buy it online, its called "KNOxOUT" produced by Boysen. I have absolutely nothing to do with the company selling this product by the way - but it is a 'light' at the end of the tunnel and something that's worth looking into.

Additionally and always, cycle to work if you can, turn off that electrical appliance if you aren't using it and invest in some solar panel battery chargers, they really work (saving a ton in energy bills) and with technology nowadays are getting better/cheaper, there's really no excuse!

a sceptical mind says....

That a species of insect that is perfectly able, and even famously known for it, to communicate the presence of a food source, its'abundance, its' distance, and its' direction relative to the position of the sun at that time to others of their hive through *DANCE* , would be utterly flummoxed by a bit of NOx , which also occurs naturally is....well.... less than likely.

To put it politely.

They didn't actually test it on bees, did they?

They did the chemical stuff, but didn't test their hypothesis on the animal they're claiming is affected. Odd.

...Remember that up until not too long ago there was no proof smoking cigarettes was unduly harmful....

Interestingly, there still isn't. Proof, that is. There's lots of statistical correlation, and most people believe it, but no one has found an unambiguous mechanism for cancer or heart damage yet, which are the two most commonly claimed harms....

So, diesel exhaust kills off bees and hunger ensures.

Which is why Europe and Asia died after WWII, with all of those diesel and gasoline tanks rampaging about.

Thank you for playing, please play again.

And next time, figure out *what* is killing off wild bee colonies as well as domesticated bee colonies.

And hopefully, something that is real and works when mitigated against.