Bee science

Researchers finally have a clue about the mass disappearance of pollinating honeybees from hives across the country and elsewhere, as reported in today's NYTimes: a virus, the presence of which was 62 times more likely in hives that had collapsed than in those that had not. Because the very strong association could still be a coincidence, however,

To try to clarify cause and effect, the researchers said they were preparing a new suite of tests in which isolated bee colonies would be intentionally infected with the virus, both with and without possible secondary causes like certain parasites.

I guess you could call it epiapiology (to mix Latin and Greek)...