3D-printed fake wasps help explain bad animal mimicry
Nature Podcast
[email protected]
4.4 • 859 Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode:
00:45 Why animals evolve to be imperfect mimics
Many harmless animals mimic dangerous ones to avoid being eaten, but often this fakery is inaccurate. To help explain why evolution sometimes favours imperfect mimicry, a team 3D printed a range of imaginary insects. The novel creatures were designed to mimic wasps with varying degrees of accuracy and the team then presented these models to different predators. They showed that while birds were hard to fool, invertebrate predators were less able to discern between the mimics and accurate wasp models. The results suggest that predator perception plays a key role in the level of accuracy needed to fool them and may help explain the existence of inaccurate mimics in nature.
Research article: Taylor et al.
News and Views: 3D printing offers a way to study mimicry by insects
12:53 Research Highlights
Ritual ‘retirement’ rather than family feud may explain broken statues of a female pharaoh, and how kelp ‘loofahs’ made by killer whales might be the first example of toolmaking by a marine mammal.
Research Highlight: The shattered statues of Queen Hatshepsut: the reasons for the wreckage
Research Highlight: Killer whales exfoliate each other with home-made scrubbers
15:02 Briefing Chat
The sea slugs that steal chloroplasts to snack on, and the researchers re-enacting a Stone Age sea-voyage.
Nature: ‘Wildest thing’: solar-powered slug steals chloroplasts and stores them for emergencies
Nature: These scientists re-enacted Stone Age voyage to Japan’s remote islands
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Every great business starts as a dream, but turning that dream into reality, that's where Shopify comes in. |
| 0:08.1 | Shopify is proud to power many sources of UK e-commerce from brands like Mattel and Jim Shark to new entrepreneurs. |
| 0:15.1 | Worried about building a website, Shopify's ready-to-use templates help bring your brand to life. |
| 0:20.5 | Need a handbook content. Shopify's AI toolsto-use templates help bring your brand to life. Need a handwork content. |
| 0:22.0 | Shopify's AI tools generate product descriptions, headlines, and even enhance your images. |
| 0:28.3 | Struggling to get noticed, Shopify's marketing tools let you launch email and social campaigns with ease. |
| 0:34.8 | And if you ever get stuck, Shopify's award-winning 24-7 support is always there to help. |
| 0:40.2 | Turn those what-ifs into why nots. |
| 0:42.5 | Turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. |
| 0:48.0 | Sign up for your £1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com. |
| 0:52.7 | com. |
| 0:53.2 | Go to Shopify.com.uk slash try to Shopify.com.uk slash try. |
| 0:56.3 | Shopify.com.com. |
| 1:00.0 | We all want the best for our dogs. |
| 1:02.1 | They're more than pets. |
| 1:03.4 | They are family. |
| 1:04.9 | That includes giving them nutritious food in a taste they love. |
| 1:08.7 | So it tells.com, because we believe no dog is average, we make meal plans uniquely tailored |
| 1:13.9 | for every dog, and we mean every dog. |
| 1:16.9 | Tell us your dog's age, breed, and lifestyle, and we'll create a meal plan packed with |
| 1:21.1 | high-quality ingredients to ensure your dog's well-being is supported. |
| 1:25.7 | Tells.com made especially for your dog. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from [email protected], and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of [email protected] and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.