Are mobile phones causing "colony collapse"?

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been much in the news lately. CCD occurs when a beehive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving behind only queens, eggs and a few immature workers.

Nobody knows where the vanished bees go, but they're apparently either deliberately or accidentally dying far from their homes. Even more scary, the parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies will refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

Why? No one knows, but a new theory has it that CCD may be connected to cell phone use, kind of a variation on Steve King's recent book. From The Independent story:

"...a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a 'hint' to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: 'I am convinced the possibility is real.'"

Another theory has it that GM (genetically modified) plants may be the culprit.

Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

We may be running out of time.