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Ironically, it was man who loosed the troublesome bee in the first place. In 1956 Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist in the state of Sāo Paulo, decided to breed the perfect honey-producing bee. He wanted to combine the best attributes of the hard-working but highly aggressive African bee (Apis mellifera adansonii) with gentler but lazier European strains. Before the hybridization could occur, 26 swarms of African bees accidentally escaped, mated with native bees, flourished and spread. The offspring, known as Brazilian honey bees, are precisely what Kerr wanted to avoid; they have inherited none...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Environment: Block That Bee! | 9/18/1972 | See Source »

Wherever it goes, the Brazilian strain attracts attention-most of it bad. When provoked, even by the vibrations caused by nearby farm machinery, the bee releases a hormone chemical that starts it off on a sort of kamikaze attack on anything that moves. The bees are now officially blamed for the deaths of ten Brazilians (one farm worker near Rio de Janeiro succumbed to more than 1,000 stings) and, unofficially, for any bee "bite" anywhere in Brazil. Even horses, mules and chickens have been killed by them. Nonetheless, they produce quantities of honey, and intrepid beekeepers raise them, though...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Environment: Block That Bee! | 9/18/1972 | See Source »

...block its advance, the report recommends setting up a kind of anti-bee Maginot Line across the natural bottleneck of Central America. All it would take is the development of a completely new species whose dominant traits would make it "relatively unaggressive, nonswarming, nonmigratory and equal to the Brazilian bee in foraging activity." This "genetic barrier" would in effect tame the Brazilian bee by breeding out the worst qualities...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Environment: Block That Bee! | 9/18/1972 | See Source »

...problem is to get this newest bee off the drawing boards. Latin countries do not have funds for the necessary research, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not committed itself to the project. Besides, there is always the chance that the new strain would escape before it was fully developed...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Environment: Block That Bee! | 9/18/1972 | See Source »

...accusations" create a "spirit of ill will and suspicion in the noble sports competition." His play is something else: not since Pianist Van Cliburn has an American been so widely renowned in the Soviet Union for his talents. Of late, though, the fascination with "Booo-bee" has been tinged with concern. "At home they don't understand," says one Soviet grand master of Fischer's success. "They think it means that there is something wrong with our culture...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Battle of the Brains | 7/31/1972 | See Source »

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