Red light therapy

[Kevin Mulvey]

Anyone heard anything about this? 

In Oslo, Christophe Brod, chief executive of beekeeping technology company Beefutures, who was inspired by some of Jeffery’s work, asked him to collaborate on research investigating whether red light could help bees be healthier and more productive in the face of growing stressors, from pesticides to climate change. 

Photo: Beefutures

The red-light bees lived longer and recovered better from pesticide exposure and extreme weather. They also produced honey of a darker color, suggesting they may have flown further to different crops, says Brod, who is now developing a commercial red-light product that can be inserted into hives.

[Gerald Przybylski]

bees don't have red-receptors in their eyes like we do.   so they can't see by red light like we can. (and we can't see UV like they can)


Beware of sample sizes of zero.
I won't get excited until I hear that the methodology and results have been replicated in honey bees.
In the discussion section the author(s) say

In spite of this these results need to be confirmed in a wider range of insects including honeybees.(sic)

No honey bees were involved in this project.

Thanks, Kevin, for the alert.

[MLuskin]

Would the ability to see red light have anything to do with results of using red light? I understand the other reasons why this doesn’t work. 

Merry

[Gerald Przybylski]

I scanned a bit of the article.
It has nothing at all to do with Visual system response to red, but with red light impinging on mitochondria affecting chemistry,  one infers. 
Red photons are low energy, and infra-red even lower energy.  
Bodily chemistry Has to be robust against disruption by wavelengths longer than ultra-violet. 
If we weren't 'immune' to light, we wouldn't be able to go to the beach and play.
We suffer the affects of UV (energies higher than 3.1eV) at the beach when we get sunburn. 

So I'm a bit skeptical about suggesting a benefit for other insects (honey bees) for something that seems to affect fruit flies,
especially when the explanation for the affect on fruit flies isn't explained.

Does anyone remember cold-fusion?

I'm planning to put this topic at the bottom of the stack of research on the far side of the desk for now.

that's my 2¢
I wore a TLD type radiation dosimeter for a few years when my laboratory job required it. 
We had an annual refresher class reminding us how much exposure to ionizing radiation a body can tolerate.
I have respect for ionizing radiation. (you're exposed to ionizing radiation when you get an X-Ray (higher 120 eV photon energies)  or take an airplane flight (cosmic rays higher than 10,000 eV energies);  it all counts)
I'm perplexed by the suggestion that red (photon energy lower than 1.24eV) can affect cell chemistry since chemistry is all about overcoming potentials
to drive reactions.  i.e.  chemistry is what you need to break up a toxic substance like the neonicotinoid.

I'm coming at it from a background in physics.  Do biochemists have anything to say on the matter?
j

[Mimi]

Jerry - Thanks for the analysis.  I was wondering if red light therapy is more like giving bees more vitamin D in humans?  Humans tend to do better with more vitamin D and when we are outside absorbing sunlight.  If it wasn’t for pesky UV’s and sun burns we’d all be getting more vitamin D naturally.  

Mimi 

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 5, 2025, at 9:11 PM, Gerald Przybylski <gtp0...@gmail.com> wrote:



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