CSI: beehive.

You've probably heard about the problems bees are having. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has decimated bee populations around the world, killing a third of all the bees in North America, and cutting some colonies to just ten percent of their original size. That's a serious problem, since a third of everything we eat depends on bees for pollination. And researchers studying bees and CCD are discovering a lot more troubling things about bees and the environment. Increased research money and expertise has meant progress identifying factors that contribute to CCD. But its root cause remains a mystery.

Two excellent pieces of reporting about bees and CCD were on TV last night. First, on CBS's 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft reported on CCD and what it's doing to agriculture as well as what it's doing to beekeepers.

As 60 Minutes ended on CBS, Nature began on PBS. The program's season opener was "Silence of the Bees." It, too, looked at colony collapse disorder, broadening its scope to include France, where one of the pesticides suspected as contributing to CCD is banned, and to China, where a bee die-off years ago means woefully inefficient attempts by humans to pollinate crops.

By the end of both, you'll feel like commercial beekeeper Dave Hackenberg is like an old friend -- he's a crucial element in almost all the reporting about CCD because he trucks his millions of bees all over the United States to pollinate everything from blueberries in Maine to almonds in California.