The mysterious deaths of vast numbers of honeybees earlier this century was a portent to human civilization. Called "colony collapse disorder," and first identified in 2006, some beekeepers saw as many as half of their bees suddenly and mysteriously die. Because most of human agriculture is dependent on bees to fertilize and pollinate their crops, humans are, in a very real way, dependent on bees for our survival — perhaps even more so than we are dependent on the fruits of our own agriculture. After all, we can plant and grow fruiting plants, but those plants won't fruit without the help of pollinators.
Colony collapse disorder was eventually linked to a class of man-made insecticides called neonicotinoids. As the name hints, neonicotinoids are chemically similar to nicotine, which itself is a natural insecticide. Besides being linked to plummeting bee populations, neonicotinoids evidently had effects further down the food chain — harming bird communities, seeping into national wildlife refuges and perhaps affecting human brain development. Chemists and laypeople alike have observed for years that neonicotinoids seem to damage nervous systems; it is simply a question of quantifying how that happens.
