Honeybees first appeared on earth around 80 million years ago, and from the beginning have played a key role in our survival.  Most fruit trees and vegetable species are entirely dependent on bees to produce, and there is no commercially viable artificial replacement for natural pollination.  The bees are directly responsible for one of every three bites of food humans consume.  Einstein is reported to have said that without bees, mankind would have only four years to live, and we may be about to find out just how true that is, because bees around the world are disappearing.  The massive die-offs, first reported in November of 2006, are now the subject of international emergency research as the devastation spreads and scientists race to discover the cause of this ecological disaster.  In a matter of six months, up to 80% of the honeybees in the US vanished.  Orchards in France have been decimated, and farmers in China have been reduced to paying laborers to pollinate orchards by hand.  Could it be a disease?  Or is it caused by pesticides, genetically modified foods, or the stress that comes from increasingly industrialized beekeeping operations?  Whatever is happening, we must solve the mystery soon, and correct the problem, or face consequences we hardly dare imagine.