stop-chemistry-time

You recently wrote a Chemistry World article about the hidden costs of work (e.g. teachers buying supplies).

What is your take on the expectation in organic chemistry, in many (most?) UK/US groups, that PhD students and postdocs buy their own laptops, even if though will use them 90% of the time in furtherance of their research efforts? Do you think anything can be done to change this attitude, and thus help to professionalise research by assuring data retention/security and avoiding time wasted on personal laptop repairs?

Yeah, I see the point with personal/professional, and the comparison to undergrads. In my view, PIs/departments should provide desktop computers for their workers (student and staff, one each), and maybe have a loan pool of laptops for conferences/research trips.

The big issue I see more and more is that when a PhD student or postdoc leaves a group, they take all of their data with them, because it's on their portable computer (and, often, not backed up completely - no IT policy has an impact when someone is busy labelling vials and cleaning their hood on their last day!). With increasing numbers of funders mandating data retention, I feel like it's only a matter of time until something gives. Desktop computers help because even if the researcher departs without organising their data nicely, at least it is still on the hard drive.

They don't instantly die. it's a bit more gruesome than that. I'll come back to it. But yes, the bees do die in sacrifice for the "good of the colony".

So, back to stinging. The bee's sting itself - the needle-like bit that goes into the skin - has barbs on it. These barbs mean that when the sting goes into the victim's skin, the bee cannot pull it back out. If you see a bee stinging (there must be videos on youtube), the bee desperately tries to pull the sting out. But it can't.

The barbs are really strong and that stinger is dug firmly into the victim's skin. The bee keeps pulling. Eventually, something has to give - and that is the bee's body. Yep, the bee's body breaks apart, and it separates from the main part of the sting mechanism and musculature, and often some other parts of the body (digestive system parts, heart, etc). The bee can still survive, and crawls or flies away. Eventually the bee will die, almost certainly within 3 hours.

But let's get back to the stinger. It's in the skin with some of the (ex-)bee's body attached to it. That's the venom sac and some muscle. The muscle is still pumping the venom sac, forcing more and more venom into the victim.

The bee's bodily detachment has also resulted in some release of "blood"/bodily fluids. These fluids contain pheromones (like scents) which attract other bees with a sort of alarm signal "This is a predator, sting it!". So more and more bees can come and sting the same site.

This response is very strong in "killer" Africanized honey bees, which is part of the reason for how dangerous they are.

Mostly, all ibruprofen is the same. When you see "fast acting" and similar, it can be due to different tablet formulations, which do not require a separate "active ingredient" identifier. For example, gel caplets, or different packing agents. These can have a measurable impact on efficacy, in some cases.

Bees don't eat grapes.

Physiologically, honeybees lack strong enough mouthparts to break into fruits. Plus, fruit does not form part of their diet.

You might be confusing bees for some other insect. That being said, it is possible (but imo unlikely) that bees could scavenge where some other insect/animal has opened the fruits already. Crucially, bees do not damage fruit or other produce.

In any case, the answer is the same - enclose the fruit when it is ripening. So after the flowers are pollinated and falling off, tightly affix some sort of bag (plastic or hessian, or similar) to enclose the fruit. You might need to put pinprick holes if you're using plastic, to allow the fruit to breathe.

Alternatively, if you don't care about being "organic", use pesticides after the flowers are gone.