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So people are more afraid of insects
than they are of dying.

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(Laughter)

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At least, according to a 1973 book 
of lists survey which preceded all those

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online best, worst, funniest lists
that you see today.

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Only heights and public speaking exceeded
the six-legged as sources of fear.

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And I suspect if you had put spiders 
in there, the combinations of insects

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and spiders would have just
topped the chart.

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Now, I am not one of those people.

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I really love insects.
I think they're interesting and beautiful,

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and sometimes even cute.

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(Laughter)

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And I'm not alone.


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For centuries, some of the greatest minds 
in science from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson

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have drawn inspiration from studying some
of the smallest minds on earth.

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Well, why is that?

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What is that keeps us coming
back to insects?

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Some of it of course, is just the sheer
magnitude of almost everything about them.

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They're more numerous than 
any other kind of animal.

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We don't even know how many species
of insects there are because new ones

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are being discovered all the time.

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There are at least a million,
maybe as many as 10 million.

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This means that you could have an insect
of the month calendar

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and not have to reuse a species 
for over 80,000 years.

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(Laughter)

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Take that pandas and kittens!

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(Laughter)

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More seriously, insects are essential.
We need them.

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It's been estimated that 1 out of every 3
bites of food is made possible

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by a pollinator.

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Scientist use insects to make fundamental
discoveries about everything

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from the structure of our nervous systems,
to how our genes and DNA work.

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But what I love most about insects
is what they can tell us about