So when five years ago the world learned that bees in America and Canada were dying in large numbers, and hives were becoming defunct, the agricultural community and the beekeepers and just plain people became alarmed. Hives were deserted, the bees gone, presumably dead, honey production stopped, and the bee industry crippled.

The problem was called Colony Collapse Disorder, and it threatened California’s very profitable almond industry, which is dependent on bees to pollinate the trees and keep the nuts growing. And not just almonds: 130 crops in California alone depend on honey bees. Beekeepers from around the nation load their hives on trucks and bring them to California and rent them out to growers. As the disease, or whatever it is, spread, the price of renting ever-more-scarce bees went up.

Honey bee hive at UC Davis

Once the news media started reporting heavily on the plight of the bees and the beekeepers, interest soared. Researchers at universities around the country started looking into the problem; money was donated to figure out what was killing the bees. Stories appeared frequently about the scientific efforts to figure out what was causing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and what would cure it. With all that attention you’d think they would have solved the problem.

But what the scientists have discovered is that they really don’t know very much about bees. They don’t have a baseline of what goes on on the microscopic level in the hives. What viruses already exist in healthy colonies? You’ve got know that before you can start to understand if a virus is normal or abnormal and may be killing bees. Scientists like Joe DeRisi at the University of California San Francisco say they’ve made great strides, even though they haven’t found a culprit.

DeRisi: “I think there’s been tremendous progress. One of the frustrating things with CCD is it doesn’t look like there’s any one single agent or culprit that you can point the finger to that’s causing all of these problems. It looks to be a confluence of things that is several different pathogens or situations or environmental conditions that are coming together to cause losses that are more than would be expected. And that’s what’s frustrating people. What has occurred because of the interest in honeybees and because of the large losses caused by CCD is people like myself and other researchers around the country applying new techniques and tools to honeybees which they normally would not have done so, and so we’ve learned an incredible amount about the ecosystem in the bee and around the bee. And what we now know is that there’s a whole host of pathogens no one knew anything about and that certain combinations of these appear to be associated with higher losses than would otherwise be expected during the season. “

DeRisi’s lab discovered four new viruses that exist in healthy hives they never knew existed before. But that didn’t solve the problem at hand.

The disease remains a serious threat, with about a third of all bee colonies affected, and no cure in sight. But many among the other two-thirds of the beekeeping community think they have it under control, because their hives are doing well. They claim they take better care of their bees, feed them better, and use various medicines and techniques to keep the hives healthy.

One technique some beekeepers swear by is splitting the hives every year or even more frequently. That means taking half the bees out, getting a new queen (you can buy queens!), and making two hives out of one. Eric Mussen, a university extension bee specialist at the University of California at Davis, thinks splitting works – up to a point:

Mussen: “When you make these splits, you more or less take the pathogen load, all the problems, you kind of split it in half and then you’ve got these little colonies that have to build up really quickly and when that happens frequently they can outrun some of the parasites. They can outrun some of the disease problems for awhile, so those colonies get up and they make it and they’re, they’re good for a season. Okay, had you not split it, it seems like in many cases the microbes and the parasites become overwhelming and the colony dies, so my terminology is starting from packages, making splits, if you could keep your colonies forever young it looks like that’s a, a way that helps deal with the problem. Nothing’s perfect.

Q: Why hasn’t that completely eradicated this problem then? Why isn’t everybody splitting?

Mussen: Well, a number of people are splitting, either by default or some by design. They’ve, they’re now understanding what the problem is and, and how this helps. But the problem is that I think some of the equipment has or whatever the CCD problem is, is kind of innate in the equipment and so it really doesn’t matter what bees you put in and how you deal with them, it’s always right there, right on the edge ready to create a real problem. So you do the best that you can to try to just stay a little bit ahead of that.”

The research goes on – and so does pollination. The almond industry is surviving, and in fact, thriving. Last year was the largest crop ever. The crisis mentality seems to have passed, but the problem remains. While beekeepers are used to cycles where their bees die off, and then come back, Colony Collapse Disorder seems to be more persistent than previous die-offs, and shows little sign of abatement. While it hasn’t been decoded nor cured, it has focused attention on a unique part of agriculture that seems to need the attention. And that’s not honey-coating the progress that has been made.

Climate change could dramatically affect the microclimates that have made California wine country so successful.

You've probably heard of the wines that made Napa and Sonoma famous, like Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. But what about Negroamaro or Nero d'Avola?

They're wine grapes that are well-adapted to hotter climates – the kind of conditions that California may be facing as the climate continues to warm. But for wineries that have staked their reputations on certain wines, adapting to climate change could be a tough sell.

Talk to any wine lover in California and they'll tell you how lucky they are to live in such rich wine-producing region. Take the recent meeting of the San Francisco Wine Lovers Group at Toast wine bar in Oakland, where the favorites are California Pinot Noir, Russian River Zinfandel, and Napa Cabernet.

In fact, the type of grape – or varietal – is how most of us think about wine.

"That's the big problem," says Andy Walker, a grape breeder in Viticulture and Enology at the University of California-Davis. "We've spent the last 100 years emphasizing varieties and we've really marketed those names very effectively."

Walker is strolling through UC Davis's test vineyard, where hundreds of different wine grapes from around the world are grown. The vast majority are unknown to consumers, because most wineries focus on only a handful of grapes. "Chardonnay, cabernet, merlot, pinot noir – those would make up probably a large percentage," he says.

Those are all French varieties, mostly suited for cool climates. California is warm by comparison and thanks to climate change, it's expected to get a lot warmer. Extreme heat can be the enemy of good wine. "It destroys acidity primarily and it changes color and aromatics," says Walker.

According to a recent study from Stanford University, about two degrees of warming could reduce California's premium wine-growing land by 30 to 50 percent. That could happen as soon as 2040. Water supply is also expected to be an issue.

"I think the interesting thing for me as a breeder is to take advantage of this and say, OK, here's a chance now to change thought and let's actually readapt varieties to California," he says.

Andy Walker walks through UC Davis's test vineyard.

But in many circles, grape breeding is a dirty term, according to Walker.

"Viticulture is the most backward form of horticulture that exists. We use these varieties that haven't been changed for decades, for millennia in some cases. And it really doesn't make any sense."

The problem starts in today's vineyards. If you look at rows of Pinot Noir vines, you aren't just looking at the original varietal. You're looking at clones. That's because vines are grown from a branch that's taken off an existing plant.

"Pinot noir is being propagated year after year after year. This essentially means that grapes have not been having sex very much," says Sean Myles , a geneticist at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College.

He says breeding is key for other crops, since farmers need seeds to plant every year. Wine grapes miss this opportunity to develop adaptability and disease resistance, since vines don't grow from seeds

"That means that we're not allowing the genetic material to be shuffled anymore. That genetic material is now standing still in time. And while the pathogens are evolving, the pinot noir is not," says Myles.

Andy Walker says there's plenty of genetic diversity out there for breeding, if you wanted to make today's varieties more heat tolerant or drought resistant. But there's a very big problem. Once your breed your pinot noir with something else, you can't call it pinot noir anymore.

"The last decision that hardest. Can we market this variety? We know it produces exceptional wine. We know the quality is better. But the next step is can we actually market it," says Walker.

That's a deal breaker for many vineyards, who think consumers won't buy varieties they don't recognize. Walker says looking ahead to climate change, there are already varieties out there today from Italy and Spain that would do well in a warmer California. "We could produce Barbera instead, or Negroamaro or Nero d'Avola from southern Italy and we'd be far better ahead."

These lush reds are popular in Italy but not so well known to Californians. Walker says it'll come down to marketing. "I don't think it's the consumer that's gonna make the shift. They have to be directed."

"I think it's really a pull from consumers," says Nick Dokoozlian, a Vice President at E & J Gallo Winery, the largest family-owned winery in the US. "In most cases, we're responding to consumer demand for a cultivar."

Dokoozlian says Gallo has been testing new wine varieties throughout its vineyards and has found some promising grapes. "The problem is we can't necessarily sell those varieties. Consumers aren't aware of them. The marketing aspect of climate change and the adaptation to climate change, really, the hurdles on the marketing side are much, much more significant."

Since vineyards can last up to 30 years, he says switching varieties is a major financial gamble. "The wine business is an extremely capital intensive business. The financial risk of planting the wrong variety in the wrong place is pretty significant."

Still, given the temperature and water supply changes projected for California, Dokoozlian sees the market shifting eventually. "I'm looking forward to having world-class California Nero d'Avola soon."

Freshly baked sourdough bread by Eduardo Morrell of Morrell's Bread

One Saturday morning last summer, my husband and I stopped by the Berkeley Farmers' Market to buy some seasonal produce. After filling our bags with fresh vegetables, we decided to try a loaf of bread from Morrell’s Bread. I can't recall what type of bread we ended up choosing, but we both remember that it was the best loaf of bread we'd ever had. So as I began to research this story, I tracked down Eduardo to learn more about his wonderful bread – and eventually profiled him in Science on the SPOT: Secrets of Sourdough.

“It all really started when I received my master’s degree in filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute," says Eduardo. "And through the Art Institute, I knew plenty of artists and stuff that were doing residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts. I would go up to visit them every now and then to check out their studios…I had worked in restaurants to make money even while I was at the school…And at one point, the Headlands ended up hiring a new chef, Jessica Prentice, a very good friend of mine who now [helps to run] Three Stone Hearth…And I went and volunteered one day at their open studios. And lo and behold, there’s the brick oven and there was a French baker there who was using the brick oven: Laurent, who was leasing the space and baking bread. Both [were] really kind of were my first two culinary inspirations.”

Eduardo observed Laurent as he worked and began to develop an understanding and appreciation for how to mix and ferment doughs. He then left California for a year to work as an assistant for former Duke University professor and author Reynolds Price and baked bread for Mr. Reynolds on a weekly basis.

“Reynolds was always happy to wake up and have the smell of fresh bread in the house…It was kind of fun, and that’s really where I started to develop this kind of the interest in the science of it more. I started a sourdough culture in North Carolina, I brought this one from California, and I would bake at different times and see if the one from California was changing…When you’re baking on small scale like that, that’s when I really started doing all my R&D, you know, for eventually what would become Morrell’s Bread.”

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

Upon Eduardo’s return, both Jessica and Laurent had departed to begin other ventures, so he made the suggestion to the Headlands Center For the Arts to lease the kitchen so he could bake his bread. Morrell’s Bread has grown steadily since then and has been in business for 10 years.

Using a wood-fired brick oven (constructed and designed by the renowned Alan Scott) takes an incredible amount of planning and effort in order to bake all of the bread for his weekly appearances at the Berkeley Farmers' Markets, but he loves both the romance and the sustainable aspect of using it. “I really like baking out in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and burning wood there. It is actually a very sustainable form of heat. You have one wood-fired brick oven in a biome for trees, and all the trees pretty much act as one big carbon scrubber. So there’s very little pollution that happens when you have a single fire happening in this big, open area.” Eduardo also feels that, “both gas-fired ovens and wood-fired ovens produce excellent bread. I think it’s a question of what your personal preference is and how you want to be perceived as a baker and how you want to be a baker. And so I really like the whole preciousness aspect of it, and it reminded me a lot of my career as a filmmaker in that I really liked working with film. I didn't like working with video. I felt that film was precious…And I think it’s a similar process with baking bread.”

To learn more about Morrell's Bread, check out this slideshow of Eduardo Morrell's typical day at the Headlands Center of the Arts:

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 Secrets of Sourdough Educator Guide

Since the Gold Rush days when prospectors baked loaves in their encampments, sourdough bread has been a beloved favorite of the Bay Area. But what is true sourdough bread? It's more than just the tangy flavor. Science on the SPOT visits with Maria Marco of UC Davis and baker Eduardo Morrell to learn more about the secret science of sourdough.

When I was assigned to work on our QUEST story on nanotechnology, I braced myself for the complex terrain ahead. The focus is on the public policy implications of the surge in consumer goods containing nanoparticles. And just how big is the market for nano-manufactured goods? According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, a partnership between the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, there are hundreds of products available to consumers that contain manufactured nanomaterials. They run the gamut from tennis rackets to toothpaste to air purifiers and even stuffed animals which contain antibacterial nanosilver. Lux Research projects that the worldwide market for nano-manufactured goods will exceed 2 trillion dollars by 2014.

Meanwhile, the federal government has been criticized for failing to regulate more stringently the use of nanoparticles and for not investing enough dollars to study the effects of their exposure. Even when the federal authorities do act, like when they ruled that germ-killing products laced with nanosilver must be registered as pesticides, it makes you scratch your head at how outdated some of our environmental laws are and ill-equipped to deal with materials that came online after the laws were written.

The nuts and bolts of producing this story were challenging as well. To lay out the public policy debate, we needed to get opinions and facts from an environmental organization, the federal government and a firm that is actually manufacturing products at the nano-scale. I was also fortunate to get access to Kent Pinkerton and his colleagues at UC Davis, who are studying the exposure effects of quantum dots and carbon nanotubes on rodents. Special thanks goes to my Associate Producer, Jenny Oh, for securing an important interview with Dr. John Howard, the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. As I was about to commence my interview with Dr. Howard, I ran through with him the list of questions, including one about respirators and whether they would adequately protect exposure to materials that are thousands of times smaller than the human hair. Without missing a beat, Dr. Howard grabbed his pen, asked me for a sheet of paper and drew a sketch of a filter lattice, explaining how yes, thanks to Brownian motion, the tiny nanoparticles would be moving around so wildly that they would bounce off the surface of the lattice. Bigger particles, on the other hand, may get through the lattice.

Discussion about nanotechnology, its benefits, its risks, the knowns and unknowns will continue for some time. Perhaps QUEST will revisit nanotechnology as new breakthroughs emerge and science reveals more clearly how nanoparticles affect the environment and living organisms.

Watch the "Macro Concerns in a Nano World" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.

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