“Insect Sex Intersections” is a new episode (the seventh episode) in the series “Laugh Then Think: Japan’s Offbeat Science” broadcast by the Japanese TV network NHK. You can watch it online. The series looks closely and lovingly at some of Japan’s many Ig Nobel Prize winners. The producers summarize the new episode this way: “An […]
If some dinosaurs had wings and flapped them would that frighten insects into fleeing? This study tried to tease out a likely answer, by making and using a dino-like robot. The video shows some of what happened. The study is: “Escape behaviors in prey and the evolution of pennaceous plumage in dinosaurs,” Jinseok Park, Minyoung […]
The 2022 Insect Fear Festival is coming. Run! Jump! Fly! One way or another or another, get to it on Saturday, February 26, 2022! The festival is organized by swarms of entomologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year it begins with a special presentation by Ig Nobel Prize winner Justin Schmidt, creator of […]
The claim that “corporations are people” sometimes draws ridicule. A new paper suggests a related, maybe more accurate claim: “Corporate Insecthood,” Nina Strohminger and Matthew R. Jordan, PsyArXiv. February 14. psyarxiv.com/rxkhe. The authors, at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, explain: “Whether the corporation should be considered a person is a matter of active […]