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Big Picture Science

The Pest of Us

Big Picture Science

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.51K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2015

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Picture a cockroach skittering across your kitchen. Eeww! Now imagine it served as an entrée at your local restaurant. There’s good reason these diminutive arthropods give us the willies – but they may also be the key to protein-rich meals of the future. Get ready for cricket casserole, as our relationship to bugs is about to change. Also, share in one man’s panic attack when he is swarmed by grasshoppers. And the evolutionary reason insects revolt us, but also why the cicada’s buzz and the beetle’s click may have inspired humans to make music. Plus, the history of urban pests: why roaches love to hide out between your floorboards. And Molly adopts a boxful of mealworms. Guests: Jeffrey Lockwood – Professor of natural sciences and humanities, University of Wyoming, author of The Infested Mind: Why Humans Fear, Loathe, and Love Insects David Rothenberg – Musician, author of Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise Dawn Day Biehler – Assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore county, author of Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books) Andrew Brentano, Jena Brentano and Daniel Imrie-Situnayake – Co-founders, Tiny Farms, Berkeley, California Descripción en español First released January 27, 2014. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

0:05.0

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0:07.0

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0:11.0

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0:18.0

So get serious about selling and get Shopify today.

0:21.0

Sign up for a one pound per month trial period

0:23.6

at Shopify. co-deek slash special offer,

0:26.4

all lowercase.

0:27.5

That's Shopify. co-deekk slash special offer.

0:32.3

Get ready to geek out. The Wired Science Podcast explores all the

0:36.8

latest and greatest in science, everything from strange diseases and

0:40.6

biological breakthroughs to interesting tech and mysteries in outer space.

0:45.0

Listen to Wired Science today wherever you get your podcasts.

0:49.0

That's Wired Science wherever you get your podcasts.

0:52.0

Let's be honest.

0:54.0

You probably don't like bugs.

0:56.0

I mean, think about it.

0:57.0

You turn on the garage light and a cockroach scurries across the concrete.

1:01.0

Your reaction?

1:02.6

Ew. Or you turn off the light in a motel room and you hear that awful wine.

1:08.6

And you can't sleep until you hunt it down.

1:12.1

Come here.

...

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