0:00:01.857,0:00:06.687
So people are more afraid of insects[br]than they are of dying.

0:00:07.267,0:00:08.196
(Laughter)

0:00:08.405,0:00:14.627
At least, according to a 1973 book [br]of lists survey which preceded all those

0:00:14.929,0:00:19.689
online best, worst, funniest lists[br]that you see today.

0:00:20.270,0:00:27.444
Only heights and public speaking exceeded[br]the six-legged as sources of fear.

0:00:28.234,0:00:32.808
And I suspect if you had put spiders [br]in there, the combinations of insects

0:00:33.110,0:00:35.989
and spiders would have just[br]topped the chart.

0:00:36.941,0:00:38.775
Now, I am not one of those people.

0:00:39.123,0:00:45.277
I really love insects.[br]I think they're interesting and beautiful,

0:00:45.648,0:00:47.204
and sometimes even cute.

0:00:47.923,0:00:48.173
(Laughter)

0:00:49.061,0:00:50.896
And I'm not alone.[br]

0:00:51.151,0:00:55.655
For centuries, some of the greatest minds [br]in science from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson

0:00:56.375,0:01:01.507
have drawn inspiration from studying some[br]of the smallest minds on earth.

0:01:02.900,0:01:04.386
Well, why is that?

0:01:04.711,0:01:07.474
What is that keeps us coming[br]back to insects?

0:01:08.240,0:01:12.837
Some of it of course, is just the sheer[br]magnitude of almost everything about them.

0:01:13.046,0:01:15.206
They're more numerous than [br]any other kind of animal.

0:01:15.809,0:01:19.130
We don't even know how many species[br]of insects there are because new ones

0:01:19.292,0:01:21.103
are being discovered all the time.

0:01:21.568,0:01:24.726
There are at least a million,[br]maybe as many as 10 million.

0:01:25.469,0:01:29.253
This means that you could have an insect[br]of the month calendar

0:01:29.509,0:01:33.572
and not have to reuse a species [br]for over 80,000 years.

0:01:33.781,0:01:35.685
(Laughter)

0:01:36.660,0:01:38.239
Take that pandas and kittens!

0:01:38.471,0:01:40.073
(Laughter)

0:01:40.816,0:01:44.973
More seriously, insects are essential.[br]We need them.

0:01:45.669,0:01:49.849
It's been estimated that 1 out of every 3[br]bites of food is made possible

0:01:50.058,0:01:51.567
by a pollinator.

0:01:53.122,0:01:56.930
Scientist use insects to make fundamental[br]discoveries about everything

0:01:57.163,0:02:01.272
from the structure of our nervous systems,[br]to how our genes and DNA work.

0:02:02.642,0:02:05.754
But what I love most about insects[br]is what they can tell us about

0:02:05.870,0:02:07.286
our own behavior.

0:02:07.750,0:02:10.653
Insects seem like they do [br]everything that people do.

0:02:10.908,0:02:14.159
They meet, they mate, they break up.

0:02:14.716,0:02:18.570
And they do so with what looks [br]like love or animosity.

0:02:21.210,0:02:24.700
But what drives their behaviors is really[br]different than what drives our own,

0:02:24.700,0:02:27.231
and that difference can be[br]really illuminating.

0:02:28.555,0:02:31.503
There's nowhere where that's more true[br]than when it comes to one of our most

0:02:31.666,0:02:33.686
consuming interests --[br]sex.

0:02:34.313,0:02:37.935
Now, I will maintain and I think I can[br]defend what may seem like

0:02:38.191,0:02:39.630
a surprising statement.

0:02:40.954,0:02:44.088
I think sex in insects is more [br]interesting than sex in people.

0:02:44.320,0:02:45.783
(Laughter)

0:02:46.131,0:02:52.261
And the wild variety that we see makes us[br]challenge some of our own assumptios

0:02:52.401,0:02:54.955
about what it means to be male and female.

0:02:55.860,0:03:00.179
Of course, to start with, a lot of insects[br]don't need to have sex at all to reproduce.

0:03:00.295,0:03:04.707
Female aphids can make little, tiny clones[br]of themselves without ever mating.

0:03:05.751,0:03:08.004
Virgin birth, right there.[br]On your rose bushes.

0:03:08.491,0:03:09.583
(Laughter)

0:03:10.986,0:03:16.061
When they do have sex, even their sperm[br]is more interesting than human sperm.

0:03:16.316,0:03:21.726
There are some kinds of fruit flies whose[br]sperm is longer than the male's own body.

0:03:22.399,0:03:26.370
And that's important because the males [br]use their sperm to compete.

0:03:27.090,0:03:31.060
Now, male insects do compete with weapons,[br]like the horns on these beetles.

0:03:31.710,0:03:35.797
But they also compete after [br]mating with their sperm.

0:03:36.726,0:03:41.973
Dragonflies and damselflies have penises[br]that look kind of like Swiss Army knives

0:03:42.066,0:03:43.738
with all of the attachments pulled out.

0:03:43.993,0:03:44.899
(Laughter)

0:03:46.106,0:03:51.377
And they use these formidable devices like[br]like scoops, to remove the sperm

0:03:51.702,0:03:54.790
from previous males that [br]the female has mated with.

0:03:55.163,0:03:56.671
(Laughter)

0:03:57.089,0:03:59.527
So, what can we learn from this?

0:03:59.921,0:04:03.451
(Laughter)

0:04:05.540,0:04:11.508
Alright, it is not a lesson in the sense[br]of us imitating them or of them setting

0:04:11.693,0:04:13.992
an example for us to follow.

0:04:15.223,0:04:17.173
Which given this, is probably just as well.

0:04:18.195,0:04:20.935
And also did I mention sexual cannibalism[br]is rampant among insects?

0:04:21.213,0:04:22.931
So, no that's not the point.

0:04:23.349,0:04:29.084
But what I think insects do, is break [br]a lot of the rules that we humans have

0:04:29.386,0:04:30.965
about the sex roles.

0:04:31.453,0:04:36.259
So people have this idea that nature[br]dictates kind of a 1950s sitcom version

0:04:36.747,0:04:38.976
of what males and females are like.

0:04:39.231,0:04:42.644
So that males are always supposed to be [br]dominant and aggressive, and females

0:04:43.364,0:04:44.363
are passive and coy.

0:04:44.873,0:04:46.684
But that's just not the case.

0:04:46.986,0:04:51.723
So for example, take katydids, which are[br]relatives of crickets and grasshoppers.

0:04:51.932,0:04:56.669
The males are very picky of who they [br]mate with because they not only transfer

0:04:56.808,0:05:02.311
sperm during mating, they also give[br]the female something called a nuptial gift.

0:05:02.798,0:05:06.606
You can see two katydids [br]mating in these photos.

0:05:06.769,0:05:10.507
In both panels, the male's the one on[br]the right and that sword like appendage

0:05:10.716,0:05:12.759
is the female's egg-laying organ.

0:05:13.317,0:05:19.934
The white blob is the sperm and the green[br]blob is the nuptial gift, and the male

0:05:20.120,0:05:24.601
manufactures this from this own body[br]and it's extremely costly to produce.

0:05:24.949,0:05:27.387
It can weigh up to a third [br]of his body mass.

0:05:28.363,0:05:30.963
I will now pause for a moment [br]and let you think about what it would be

0:05:31.335,0:05:34.841
like, if human men --[br]everytime they had sex

0:05:34.980,0:05:41.226
had to produce something that weighed[br]50, 60, 70 pounds.

0:05:41.528,0:05:44.407
(Laughter)

0:05:44.778,0:05:48.029
Okay, they would not be able [br]to do that very often.

0:05:48.215,0:05:51.628
And indeed, neither can the katydids.

0:05:52.092,0:05:59.615
And so what that means, is the katydid[br]males are very choosy about who they

0:05:59.755,0:06:01.264
offer these nuptial gifts to.

0:06:01.543,0:06:04.747
Now, the gift is very nutritious[br]and the female eats it during

0:06:04.932,0:06:06.302
and after mating.

0:06:06.535,0:06:09.112
So, the bigger it is, the better[br]off the male is because that means

0:06:09.483,0:06:13.338
more time for his sperm to drain into her[br]body and fertilize her eggs.

0:06:14.081,0:06:20.420
But it also means that the males are very[br]passive about mating, where as the females

0:06:20.582,0:06:23.043
are extremely aggressive and competitive,[br]in an attempt to get as many as these

0:06:23.252,0:06:25.899
nutritious nuptial gifts as they can.

0:06:26.062,0:06:29.939
So, it's not exactly a [br]stereotypical set of rules.

0:06:30.427,0:06:35.628
Even more generally though, males are [br]actually not all that important

0:06:35.791,0:06:37.787
in the lives of a lot of insects.

0:06:38.136,0:06:41.735
In the social insects --[br]the bees and wasps and ants

0:06:42.488,0:06:46.848
the individuals that you see everyday,[br]the ants going back and forth

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to your sugar bowl,the honey bees [br]that are flitting from flower to flower.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All of those are always female.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
People have had a hard time getting their[br]head around that idea for millennia.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The ancient Greeks knew that there was[br]a class of bees, the drones, that are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
larger than the workers, although they [br]disapproved of the drones' laziness

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because they could see that [br]the drones just hang around the hive

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
until the mating flight --[br]they are the males.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They hang around the hives until[br]the mating flight, but they don't

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
participate in gathering nectar or pollen.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Greeks couldn't figure out [br]the drones sex, and part of the confusion

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was that they were aware of the stinging[br]ability of bees, but they found it

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
difficult to believe that any animals [br]that bore such a weapon could

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
possibly be a female.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Aristotle tried to get involved as well.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He suggested, OK, well if the stinging[br]individuals are going to be the males,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then he got confused because that would [br]have meant that males were also taking

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
care of the young in the colony[br]and he seemed to think that would be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
completely impossible.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He then concluded that bees had the organs[br]of both sexes in the same individual,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which is not that farfetched.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There are some animals that do that, but [br]he never really did get it figured out.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And you know, even today, my students[br]for instance call every animal they see

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
including insects, a male.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And when I tell them that the ferocious[br]army ant soldiers with their giant

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
jaws, used to defend the colony are all [br]always female, they seem to not

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
quite believe me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Certainly all of the movies --[br]Antz, Bee Movie

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
portray the main character in the social[br]insects as being male.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, what difference does this make?[br]I mean, these are movies.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're fiction.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They have talking animals in them, what[br]difference does it makes if they talk

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like Jerry Seinfeld?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think it does matter and it's a problem[br]that actually part of a much deeper

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
one that has implications for medicine,[br]and health and a lot of other aspects

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of our lives.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You all know that scientists use [br]what we call model systems,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which are creatures --[br]white rats or fruit flies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that are kind of stand-ins for all other[br]animals including people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the idea is, that what's true[br]for a person will also be true

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for a white rat.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
By in large, that turns [br]out to be the case.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But you can take the idea [br]of a model system too far.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And what I think we've done, is use males,[br]in any species, as though they are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the model system.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The norm.[br]The way things are supposed to be.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And females as a kind of variant --[br]something special that you only study

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after you get the basics down.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so back to the insects.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think what that means, is that people[br]could not see what was in front of them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Because they assumed that the world's [br]stage was largely occupied by male players

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and females would only have minor,[br]walk-on roles.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But when we do that,[br]we really miss out on a lot

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of what nature is like.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we can also miss out on the way[br]natural, living things incudling people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
can very.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And I think that's why we've used males[br]as models in a lot of medical research,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
something that we know now to be a problem[br]if we want the results to apply

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to both men and women.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, the last thing I really love about[br]insects is something that a lot of people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
find unnerving about them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They have little, tiny brains with very [br]little cognitive ability the way

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we normally think of it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They have complicated behavior,[br]but they lack complicated brains.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so, we can't just think of them[br]as though they're little people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because they don't do [br]things the way we do.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I really love that it's difficult[br]to anthropomorphize insects,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to look at them and just think of them[br]like they're little in exoskeletons

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with six legs.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Instead, you really have to accept them on[br]their own terms because insects make us

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
question what's normal and what's natural.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now, you know, people write fiction[br]and talk about parallel universes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They speculate about the supernatural,[br]maybe the spirits of the departed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
walking among us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The allure of another world is something[br]that people say is part of why they want

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to dabble in the paranormal.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But as far as I'm concerned, who needs [br]to be able to see dead people?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When you can see live insects?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thank you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Applause)q