nature in an experiment i really know yet why is like so far like it sounds so simple they had no idea

but now the data's i find this not only refreshing but but at some level astounding nature

welcome back to the nature podcast.

This week, the chemical that causes locusts to swarm

and a project using music to study synchronization.

I'm Charmany Bandell and I'm Benjamin Thompson.

As ever, our regular coronavirus-specific segment, CoronaPod, will be appearing later on in the podcast.

If you're just here for that, I'll put the timings in this week's show notes, so you can skip straight to it. However, I would suggest you stick around

as there's plenty of great non-corona science coming up. In fact, Sharmony, what have we got first this

week? Well, over the past few months, plagues of locusts have been devastating crops across Africa.

The sheer size of the record-breaking swarms is leaving farmers fearful for their livelihoods and communities with dwindling food supplies.

And yet, locusts aren't always so devastating.

In fact, they spend most of their lives as solitary creatures.

What triggers their swarming behaviour has been a long-standing mystery, until now.

A group from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing has discovered a pheromone which they believe

is responsible for the change, the chemical signal that turns

Jekyll into hide. We couldn't get hold of the authors for this podcast, but reporter Jeff

Marsh spoke to entomologist Leslie Vossel from the Rockefeller University in New York.

These insects are crazy, so they start out as solitary, peaceable insects that nibble on food now and again.

But once you get them together into a group of more than a small number, they turn into a mob. They change how they look,

so they change from this nice green grasshopper look to this menacing brown look, and then they take flight and migrate in enormous numbers and settle into agricultural fields and strip

them of all crops.

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