Eva Crane

Infobox Scientist
name = Eva Crane
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caption = Eva Crane
Photo courtesy of International Bee
Research Association
birth_date = June 12, 1912
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footnotes = Trained as a nuclear physicist,
but became an expert on bees.

Eva Crane (12 June 1912 – 6 September 2007) was a researcher and author on the subjects of bees and beekeeping. Trained as a nuclear physicist, she changed her field of interest to bees, and spent decades researching bees, traveling to more than 60 countries, often under primitive conditions. citation | last=Martin | first=Douglas | title=Eva Crane, English Expert on World’s Bees, Dies at 95 | newspaper=The New York Times | volume= | issue= | pages=
year=2007 | date=September 16
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/world/europe/16crane.html] The New York Times reported that "Dr. Crane wrote some of the most important books on bees and apiculture" and noted "Her older sister, Elsie Widdowson, who never retired either, helped revolutionize the field of nutrition, showing similar energy chasing seals on ice floes to study their eating habits."

Born as Ethel Eva Widdowson in London she earned a Ph.D in 1941 in nuclear physics. She became a lecturer in Physics at Sheffield University. She married James Crane, a stockbroker serving in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, in 1942. Her husband died in 1978.

Her interest in bees began when she and her husband received a beehive as a wedding present; the giver had hoped that it would help supplement their wartime sugar ration. citation | last=Marren | first=Peter | title=Eva Crane: Authority on the history of beekeeping and honey-hunting who travelled the world in pursuit of bees | newspaper=The Independent | volume= | issue= | pages=
year=2007 | date=September 14
url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2961245.ece]

Crane wrote over 180 papers, articles, and books, many when she was in her 70s and 80s. Honey: A Comprehensive Survey (1975), in which she contributed several important chapters, and edited, came about because she told the publisher (Heinemann Press) that a book on the subject was sorely needed. Although now out of print, it remains the most significant review on the subject ever written. A Book of Honey (1980) and The Archaeology of Beekeeping (1983) reflected her strong interests in nutrition and the ancient past of beekeeping.

Her writing culminated in two mighty, encyclopaedic tomes, Bees and Beekeeping: science, practice and world resources (1990; at 614 pages) and The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (1999; 682 pages). These distilled a lifetime's knowledge and experience and are regarded as seminal textbooks throughout the beekeeping world.".

She died at the age of 95 in [Slough, England] Eva has changed the lives of others, and her death will always be remembered in our hearts] .

References

External links

* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2456220.ece Obituary in "The Times"]