honeybees and cell phones

Another example of the distortion of science has recently come to my attention. It's odd how these minor studies are grasped upon by that subset of society that seeks to gain credibility and find supposed authoritative support for their preconceived biases. A very weak and insignificant piece of research is suddenly touted as:

It's Official - Cell Phones are Killing Bees!

Lo and behold, something has actually been published in the scientific literature that SEEMS to support our somewhat wacky fears of modern technology!
In this case it's a study by Favre in Switzerland that showed that if you put active cell phones in honeybee hives they will react.
What a surprise.
Did any bees die?
No.
Did any bees abscond?
No.
Were any ill effects upon the bees observed?
No.
They merely 'piped', meaning they were agitated by the obvious intrusion.
Honeybees don't use cell phones, and bee keepers are not in the habit of rigging their hives with cell phones. This study has been actively promoted as demonstrating that cell phone radiation is the cause of colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that has worried and baffled beekeepers and researchers for the past decade or so. There are many possible causes of this problem but this study in NO WAY says anything about it.
All it says is that if you put cell phones in honeybee hives they will react.
NOTHING ELSE.
That is as far as you can go with these data.
Of course, knowing the limitations of one's data is a hallmark of a good scientist, and Favre himself didn't go too far overboard (maybe a bit too far).
It's a damn shame that people who don't know their asses from a hole in the ground have highly visible venues where their ignorance can be perpetuated and reverberated across the public consciousness.

Read it yourself:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13592-011-0016-x