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How to plant a pollinator garden? How to counter parasitic mites? Aren't there new LLM applications for chemicals discovery? > According to a preprint posted

How to plant a pollinator garden? How to counter parasitic mites? Aren't there new LLM applications for chemicals discovery? > According to a preprint posted to the bioRxiv server this month, nearly all the dead colonies tested positive for bee viruses spread by parasitic mites. Alarmingly, every single one of the mites the researchers screened was resistant to amitraz, the only viable mite-specific pesticide — or miticide — of its kind left in humans’ arsenal "Viruses and vectors tied to honey bee colony losses" (2025) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656706v1.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656706v1....

GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
> How to counter parasitic mites? Aren't there new LLM applications for chemicals discovery? hard to imagine that additional hubris will solve problems created by hubris
- westurner 1y ago
  "Chemical knowledge and reasoning of large language models vs. chemist expertise" (2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44275471 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44275471
  - westurner 1y ago
    From (2025) https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2025/04/11/fda-animals-dogs-primates-pharma-biotech-medicines-research-development/ https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2025/04/11/fda-animals-do... : > [FDA] will encourage researchers to use computer modeling and artificial intelligence to predict how a drug will perform, as well as organs-on-a-chip, which are miniaturized devices that mimic organs and tissues. And to determine effectiveness, the FDA will begin using existing, real-world safety data from other countries where a drug has already been studied in humans. Also from 2025: "FDA to Use A.I. In Drug Approvals to 'Radically Increase Efficiency'" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44252183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44252183 (Edit) From FDA > "Artificial Intelligence for Drug Development" https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/artificial-intelligence-drug-development https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-res... : > FDA published a draft guidance in 2025 titled, “Considerations for the Use of Artificial Intelligence to Support Regulatory Decision Making for Drug and Biological Products.”
franktankbank 1y ago
Native pollinators don't give a shit about mites. Don't spray herbicide and nature will do the rest.
- westurner 1y ago
  What in nature eats the mites that are killing the bees?
  - franktankbank 1y ago
    Nothing needs to eat them, they just need to be manageable for the bee pops. The way that native colonies work, it just doesn't matter. The colonies size is essentially never greater than a few and often don't form colonies at all, so mites don't have really any good transmission vector.
    - westurner 1y ago
      Have you read the article? Do you believe that ecology will just resolve bee colony collapse due to mites? From the article: > USDA research points to viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites, indicating a worrying trend If nothing eats or kills the mites that are killing the bees, should we expect bee colony collapse to resolve on its own?

GuinansEyebrows 1y ago

> How to counter parasitic mites? Aren't there new LLM applications for chemicals discovery? hard to imagine that additional hubris will solve problems created by hubris

westurner 1y ago
"Chemical knowledge and reasoning of large language models vs. chemist expertise" (2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44275471 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44275471
- westurner 1y ago
  From (2025) https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2025/04/11/fda-animals-dogs-primates-pharma-biotech-medicines-research-development/ https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2025/04/11/fda-animals-do... : > [FDA] will encourage researchers to use computer modeling and artificial intelligence to predict how a drug will perform, as well as organs-on-a-chip, which are miniaturized devices that mimic organs and tissues. And to determine effectiveness, the FDA will begin using existing, real-world safety data from other countries where a drug has already been studied in humans. Also from 2025: "FDA to Use A.I. In Drug Approvals to 'Radically Increase Efficiency'" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44252183 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44252183 (Edit) From FDA > "Artificial Intelligence for Drug Development" https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/artificial-intelligence-drug-development https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-res... : > FDA published a draft guidance in 2025 titled, “Considerations for the Use of Artificial Intelligence to Support Regulatory Decision Making for Drug and Biological Products.”

franktankbank 1y ago

Native pollinators don't give a shit about mites. Don't spray herbicide and nature will do the rest.

westurner 1y ago
What in nature eats the mites that are killing the bees?
- franktankbank 1y ago
  Nothing needs to eat them, they just need to be manageable for the bee pops. The way that native colonies work, it just doesn't matter. The colonies size is essentially never greater than a few and often don't form colonies at all, so mites don't have really any good transmission vector.
  - westurner 1y ago
    Have you read the article? Do you believe that ecology will just resolve bee colony collapse due to mites? From the article: > USDA research points to viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites, indicating a worrying trend If nothing eats or kills the mites that are killing the bees, should we expect bee colony collapse to resolve on its own?