1. Understand honey and mead using comparative sensory analysis and other scientific tools
2. Review options for sanitizing equipment
3. Introduce the process of fermentation
4. Engage in a honey and a mead tasting

Special guest Michael Zilber, owner and mead maker at Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, "will join us at 11:15 to share his passion and lead us in a mead tasting," said Wendy Mather, program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP).

Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty directs CAMBP, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. Its vision, as detailed on its website, is to train 2500 Apprentice beekeepers over the next five years "so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) staff." Check out the website for upcoming courses. For more information on the program, contact camasterbee@gmail.com.

Want to celebrate May Day by learning about mead, the world's most ancient alcoholic beverage? Remember mead? It's also known as "honey wine," created by fermenting honey with water. Sometimes mead makers add fruits, spices, grains, and hops.  

There's a "me" in mead. The American Mead Makers  Association says mead has exploded 130 percent since 2011, making it "the fastest growing alcoholic beverage category in the United States."

And now a me-and-you mead course is buzzing our way.

The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) has announced it will sponsor an online introduction to mead on Saturday, May 1. It's a time to learn, taste and sip--and you can do so with friends who also register for the course, says CAMBP program manager Wendy Mather.

The virtual event is set from 9 a.m. to noon. Master Beekeeper candidate Mark Carlson "will lead us in a general mead and honey appreciation class," said Mather,  adding "We will leave the mead-making lessons to the experts at the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. "Mark will identify what makes one single source honey different from another, presenting them both from a flavor perspective, but also as a scientist who loves chemistry. The emphasis will be on nectar origins and equipment sanitation for the most part." Special guest Michael Zilber, owner and mead maker at Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, "will join us at 11:15 to share his passion and lead us in a mead tasting."

The course, "Introduction to Mead 2021," is designed to:  

• Understand honey and mead, using comparative sensory analysis and other scientific tools
• Review options for sanitizing equipment
• Introduce the process of fermentation, and 
• Engage in a honey and a mead tasting

The event is open to the public at $40 per ticket. Register at https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/718.

Mather noted that the three-hour course will include a guided experience of honey and mead-tasting. Thus, each participant will "bee on board" with three varietals of honey and two to three different meads. The Heidrun Meadery (415-663-9122)  is offering a 10 percent discount (use coupon code CAMBPSIPS).  Honey can be purchased locally or regionally--from the UC Davis Stores, a beekeeper, farmers' market or at a  grocery store. UC Davis Stores provides "all things honey" (access link).

Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty directs the California Master Beekeeper Program, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. Its vision, as detailed on its website, is to train 2500 Apprentice beekeepers over the next five years "so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) staff." Check out the website for upcoming courses. For more information on the program, contact camasterbee@gmail.com.

It's Earth Day, an event we celebrate every April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protections on our troubled planet. This year's theme: "Restore Our Earth."

U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson launched Earth Day on April 22, 1970, with the idea of holding a nationwide environmental teach-in at colleges throughout the country. His idea morphed into Earth Day. 

Sadly, however, most college campuses are temporarily or partially closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the face-to-face "teach-ins" are primarily Zoom sessions. Who would have thought? Who could have known?

What to do on Earth Day? Watching bees forage in a pollinator garden seems appropriate to recapture some of Earth Day's magic. Honey bees, responsible for pollinating one-third of the food we eat, continue to gather pollen, nectar, water and propolis every day (weather permitting), not just Earth Day.

Today's favorite fauna and flora: honey bees, Apis mellifera, foraging on rock purslane,  Calandrinia grandiflora and packing red pollen back to their colonies. Just call them "temporary occupants" on Planet Earth. But always call them "special." 

Read NASA's Nine Reasons We're Grateful to Live on Earth, posted April 21, 2020 for a better grasp of what we have and what we could lose. "The promise of a better life in the mysterious beyond can be seductive. But the fact is the more we learn about out there the more we realize how special it is here. The first astronauts to look from space back at Earth, a 'pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known,' as scientist Carl Sagan once wrote, saw a beautiful, delicate world that is perfectly suited to the bounty of life it supports."

Happy Earth Day! 

He was a giant in the field of chemical ecology but he was much more than that.  

An online global symposium celebrating “The Life and Legacy of Wittko Francke,” a renowned organic chemist based at the University of Hamburg, Germany--and a frequent collaborator with several UC Davis scientists--brought out his humanity. 

Professor Francke died Dec. 27, 2020 at age 80 of complications from COVID-19. 

The 29 speakers praised him as a brilliant and pioneering scientist, a dedicated teacher and researcher, a kind and loyal friend, a connoisseur of good wine and good food, and a generous—and sometimes anonymous—humanitarian.  They also lauded his mentoring, congeniality, sense of humor, “keen olfactory system” and his Ping Pong skills. 

The two-hour symposium, held April 3 and organized and moderated by UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, drew nearly 500 viewers and is now online at https://youtu.be/HHQzvaJB33U. 

“Wittko was one of the great pioneers shaping chemical ecology and the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE),” said Leal, a member of the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology faculty and a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Francke served as ISCE president in 1989-90, and Leal in 2000-01.

Leal first met Francke at the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) in Beijing in 1992. At the April 3rd symposium, Leal wore his ICE 1992 lapel pin and a specially made tie depicting the chemical structure of Francke's favorite compound: chalcogran. 

Panelist and former ISCE president John Hildebrand of the University of Arizona said: “Every encounter with Wittko was unforgettable.” 

Former student Jan Bergmann of the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile,  a past president of the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology, said the scientific community lost “a very productive and passionate researcher, a great colleague, mentor and friend.” 

Toward the end of the symposium, Wittko's two sons, Christian and Michael offered their remembrances. Christian disclosed that Daaks-Chemicals, a key sponsor at an ISCE annual meeting, was “a fake” business meant to disguise the real donor--his father.  

Leal then announced a fundraising project for the International Society of Chemical Ecology: “The Wittko Francke's Daaks-Chemical Fund."

Leal related this week that "There was enormous support. ISCE has now received more than $23,000. In honor of Wittko, ISCE will be establishing the annual Wittko Francke's Daaks-Chemicals Memorial Lecture."

The symposium also paid tribute to recently departed chemical ecologists, including UC Davis-affiliated researcher Steve Seybold, a research entomologist with the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis. Seybold died Nov. 15, 2019 at age 60. 

It was Seybold who introduced Francke when he was a guest speaker at a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Dec. 8, 2010.  Images of them, along with Leal, postdoctoral scholar Zain Syed, and doctoral student Leslie Saul-Gershenz, opened the April 3rd symposium. 

Among the speakers was UC Berkeley professor Dave Wood, now 90, who was Seybold's major professor.

The event concluded with chemical ecology icon Wendell Roelofs, emeritus professor of Cornell University, and his wife, Joanne, offering a toast to the late chemical ecology giant who cherished good science, good friends and good wine.

The symposium drew widespread praise. 

“I received more than 40 emails from people I know very well and others I never had the pleasure to meet; they shared their thoughts about the celebration,” Leal related. “Perhaps, one comment captures the sentiment of all: ‘Contributions to chemical ecology like Wittko's are at the center of why our field is so rewarding.'”

One email was from a professor from Japan, Shigeru Matsuyama, who collaborated with Seybold.  “He wrote me that he was surprised that Steve Seybold had passed,” Leal said. “He had visited Seybold and his family in Davis and mentioned he “had a wonderful time, seeing his laboratory, walking around Davis Farmers Market, and enjoying food at Guadalajara.” 

Wittko Francke
Born Nov. 28, 1940 and raised in Reinbek, near Hamburg, Germany,  Francke studied chemistry at the University of Hamburg, obtaining his doctorate there in 1973. His thesis: "The Aggregation Pheromone of the Bark Beetle, Xyloterus domesticus.  He was appointed professor of the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the University of Hamburg in 1985 and had served there until after his retirement. 

A colleague once called him "The Mozart of Molecules," which Jan Bergmann noted, "summarizes eloquently the admiration of many had for his work, which is documented in more than 450 scientific publications." Among Francke's many global honors: the 1995 ISCE Silver Medal. 

Former Francke student Stefan Schulz, a professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Germany, an ISCE past president,  wrote on the symposium's registration page: "Even in his early years, he showed some characteristics many associates with him, such as energy, determination, imagination, and creativity. Despite several offers, he stayed his whole academic career at the University of Hamburg, where he finally became a Full Professor and served different functions, including Dean of Chemistry. He always liked to teach, which he did happily even in his later years." 

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology tweeted Dec. 29, 2020: "Wittko Francke's death is a severe loss for the field of Chemical Ecology. He was not only a great chemist, but he also had a large influence on the development of our institute being a key member of the advisory committee that set up our institute."

France was not only an "outstanding, hard-working scientist" but a "loving husband, father of two children and grandfather of four grandchildren," Bergmann wrote. "He was also a person with incredible kindness and generosity....He enjoyed bringing people together and deeply cared about his students, many of which stayed in touch with him long after they left his research group. His legacy will live on in those of us he has inspired and guided in so many ways."