Sunday, September 06, 2015

Big Picture Science for Monday September 7, 2015 - The Pest of Us












Big Picture Science - The Pest of Us

ENCORE: Picture a cockroach skittering across your kitchen. Eeww! Now imagine it served as an entrĂ©e at your local restaurant. There’s good reason these diminutive arthropods give us the willies – but they may also be the key to protein-rich meals of the future. Get ready for cricket casserole, as our relationship to bugs is about to change.

Also, share in one man’s panic attack when he is swarmed by grasshoppers. And the evolutionary reason insects revolt us, but also why the cicada’s buzz and the beetle’s click may have inspired humans to make music.

Plus, the history of urban pests: why roaches love to hide out between your floorboards. And Molly adopts a boxful of mealworms.

Guests:

•   Jeffrey Lockwood – Professor of natural sciences and humanities, University of Wyoming, author of The Infested Mind: Why Humans Fear, Loathe, and Love Insects
•   David Rothenberg – Musician, author of Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise
•   Dawn Day Biehler – Assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore county, author of Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)
•   Andrew Brentano, Jena Brentano and Daniel Imrie-Situnayake – Co-founders, Tiny Farms, Berkeley, California


This encore podcast was first released on January 27, 2014.

Download episode at: http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/The_Pest_of_Us

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

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