So people are more afraid of insects than they are of dying.
(Laughter)
At least, according to a 1973 book of lists survey which preceded all those
online best, worst, funniest lists that you see today.
Only heights and public speaking exceeded the six-legged as sources of fear.
And I suspect if you had put spiders in there, the combinations of insects
and spiders would have just topped the chart.
Now, I am not one of those people.
I really love insects. I think they're interesting and beautiful,
and sometimes even cute.
(Laughter)
And I'm not alone.
For centuries, some of the greatest minds in science from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson
have drawn inspiration from studying some of the smallest minds on earth.
Well, why is that?
What is that keeps us coming back to insects?
Some of it of course, is just the sheer magnitude of almost everything about them.
They're more numerous than any other kind of animal.
We don't even know how many species of insects there are because new ones
are being discovered all the time.
There are at least a million, maybe as many as 10 million.
This means that you could have an insect of the month calendar
and not have to reuse a species for over 80,000 years.
(Laughter)
Take that pandas and kittens!
(Laughter)
More seriously, insects are essential. We need them.
It's been estimated that 1 out of every 3 bites of food is made possible
by a pollinator.
Scientist use insects to make fundamental discoveries about everything
from the structure of our nervous systems, to how our genes and DNA work.
But what I love most about insects is what they can tell us about