Here are three biology-related stories that I have found interesting in the last few days.

Great Turtle Race: up-beat site championing action to save the critically endangered leatherback turtles. The turtles have been tagged and you can monitor online their swim from Costa Rica to The Galapagos Islands. Only 59 turtles came to the beach this year as compared to 1,500 in 1988… shocking! Sand temperature determines the gender ratio in turtle nest: the warmer the sand the more females, the cooler the sand the more males. Bring in global warming… if the sand temperature goes over 89.5 degrees, they will all be female…

Bee Hive Colony Collapse Disorder: A comprehensive run-down on possible causes for the worrying disappearance of bees from hives resulting in deaths of whole hives on a large scale. The suggestion that its likely to be the impact of imidacloprid, a nicotine-based pesticide marketed under the names Admire, Provado, Merit, Marathon and Gaucho, looks more plausible
than most to me. Apparently its designed to make termites disoriented and lose memory, among other things, so maybe it does the same with bees.

G Spot and related matters: The ABC’s Health Report has audio download and transcript of a great interview with Professor Beverly Whipple of the College of Nursing at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is a pioneer in the scientific study of female sexual physiology and in particular the female orgasm.