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Agricultural Bees, China’s Energy Future, Frankenstein In Class. Feb 2, 2018, Part 1


China's thirst for energy is rising. But to save its cities from suffocating pollution, leaders are looking to carbon-free energy sources and electric vehicles. <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/how-china-is-reinventing-its-energy-economy/">Click here for more information about China's energy future.</a>
We need domestic bees. But what happens to wild bees when they share a space? We discuss the good and the bad in <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/looking-beyond-honeybees/">the latest installment of Good Thing, Bad Thing</a>.
Plus, <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/please-call-me-back-its-about-frankenstein/">Ira checks in with the SciFri Book Club</a>. This week, the club receives a call for help and discuss how Frankenstein is still relevant to today’s high school students.
And Maggie Koerth-Baker of Five Thirty Eight gives Ira a tour of this week's science headlines in <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/running-out-of-time-and-water-in-cape-town/">our weekly News Round-up</a>.

Science Friday

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13,000-Year-Old Footprints, Climate Court, Native Bees, Cell Phones And Cancer. March 30, 2018, Part 1


Planting tomatoes in the garden this year? Better hope you have bumblebees too, because tomato flowers need a good shaking to get the pollen out. “What the bumblebee does is grab a tomato flower, curve its abdomen around the bottom of the tomato flower, and then shiver its wing muscles at a specific frequency, shaking pollen out of the holes like a salt shaker,” <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/beyond-the-hive-the-wonderful-world-of-native-bees/" target="_blank">says Paige Embry</a>, author of Our Native Bees: North America’s Endangered Pollinators and the Fight to Save Them.
This week, a panel of peer reviewers met for three days to discuss a draft report on two long-running studies on the potential health effects of cell phone radiation. <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/is-there-a-cell-phone-link-to-cancer-a-definite-maybe/" target="_blank">In their conclusions</a>, and voted to increase the level of confidence in the findings, saying that there was a clear link between the radiofrequency radiation exposure and the male rat heart tissue tumors. The National Toxicology Program now has to decide whether to accept the panel’s recommendation before the final report is released.   
In this week's State of Science, a judge requested a climate science tutorial in a federal lawsuit where two California cities are suing the oil company Chevron. <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/climate-science-goes-to-court-in-california-oil-case/" target="_blank">In an unprecedented courtroom tutorial on climate science</a>, Chevron went on record agreeing with the scientific consensus that people are causing global warming. But the company also deflected any responsibility for it under federal law and played up uncertainties in projections for both the volume and future consequences of greenhouse gas emissions. The tack signals a potential legal defense against financial liability for climate change impacts such as rising sea levels.

Audric de Campeau pours a glass of mead in the Paris catacombs with his dog, Filou.

Culture

A French beekeeper makes mead in the Paris catacombs

Science

How do tiny little bee brains do so much?

The spring bloom in California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is pictured here. 

Here are a few ways to make the most of wildflower season

Education

Bringing science and engineering stories to life for students 

Most bees are solitary animals, and 4 other surprising bee facts

Arts, Culture & Media

Blondie on “Pollinator” 

Two Artists Let The Animals Speak For Themselves

Two Artists Let the Animals Speak for Themselves

Environment

Elephants trampling your crops? Release the bees.

Deciphering the mysterious decline of honey bees

beekeeper

Business

How this Yemeni American keeps up the family business thousands of miles from home

bees