Professor Laurence Packer’s bee lab was recently featured on CBC’s The Nature of Things, hosted by David Suzuki. The episode, “To Be or Not to Be”, highlights dramatic declines in North America's wild bee and honey bee populations, and explores whether the disappearance of the insects is an early warning sign of a larger ecological problem.

A world expert on bees, Packer and his students have amassed a collection of more than 80,000 bees and are databasing information that will be used internationally to document bee diversity. Packer is a professor in the Faculty of Science & Engineering's Department of Biology.

The episode will air again on Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network; it is also available for download on CBC’s Web site. Packer’s segment runs from the 3:30 mark through to 6:30.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.