Look to the bees

Here at #ScaiaBlog, we’ve talked about how we’re never done growing as people. For instance, I pledged to someday beat a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a foot race.

It’s possible I’m still working on that. And by “working on that,” I mean, “occasionally showing up at the Perot Museum to try out whatever new exhibit they’ve got. But certainly not getting any closer to running faster than a Tyrannosaurus Rex.”

This weekend, they open up “Bug Lab.” A museum in New Zealand partnered with the company that created props for Lord of the Rings to really freak you out.

I discussed the exhibit with the Perot Museum’s vice president of exhibitions. He explains we might find bugs creepy, but they’re more than just a pest that infested your potato salad and then started eyeing the tray of baked beans.

For instance, a [gasp] hornet has invaded the beehive. We bees have to stick together, so we have to rub each of those pads as fast as we can to recreate the speed bees would move around to create enough heat. A public relations associate accompanied me on this, and as you can see at the top, we rubbed the pads furiously enough to defeat the hornet.

The museum’s chief learning officer says bees may not communicate like we do, but we can learn how they work together to solve a problem and ensure delicious honey is protected.

You’ll also learn about venom. But not just venom… you learn about all the different kinds of venom.

Not all venom is meant to kill. Maybe the bug just wants to scare you off [a half measure, if you will]. Or maybe it wants to utilize its venom to the most effective way possible, which brings us to this wasp and cockroach.

At first, I thought I was watching a cockroach and wasp make sweet, sweet love. In fact, the VP of exhibitions says the wasp had injected the cockroach with a chemical that’ doesn’t’s not meant to kill, mind you, it just paralyzes the cockroach so the wasp’s li’l babies can feast on the roach’s nutrient-rich carcass.

“What a fun story!” he explains.

The chief learning officer added the wasp doesn’t want to kill you, he just wants to shut your mind down, the same as what your anesthesiologist does before your surgery. The anesthesiologist just wouldn’t, hopefully, lay eggs in your nutrient-rich carcass.

So the exhibit shows the real-life applications of bugs and insects. They want to spark kids’ interest in STEM, but they can also show the bugs’ applications in other areas of science. They say people who work in robotics might look at how bees in a swarm interact and how they can apply that to their own work.

Or, just as importantly, they could find the next advancement in the deliciousness of honey.