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posted by janrinok on Monday October 19 2015, @09:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the bzzzzzz-cough dept.

In polluted environments, diesel fumes may be reducing the availability of almost half the most common flower odours that bees use to find their food, research has found.

The new findings suggest that toxic nitrous oxide (NOx) in diesel exhausts could be having an even greater effect on bees' ability to smell out flowers than was previously thought.

NOx is a poisonous pollutant produced by diesel engines which is harmful to humans, and has also previously been shown to confuse bees' sense of smell, which they rely on to sniff out their food.

Researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Reading found that there is now evidence to show that, of the eleven most common single compounds in floral odours, five have can be chemically altered by exposure to NOx gases from exhaust fumes.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday October 20 2015, @01:03PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Tuesday October 20 2015, @01:03PM (#252270) Journal

    The story is about NOx or mono-nitrogen oxides. They require very high temperatures to form and are a byproduct of combustion. Motors producing NOx? The only possible thing I can think of are brushed DC motors with commutators.

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