Ento Box

Some time ago, I got an email from a student in the UK working on an Entomophagy project:

“I’m a postgraduate design student studying at the Royal College of Art in London, who is currently knee deep in a project on Entomophagy. Myself and 3 other students have spent the last four months developing a roadmap to western acceptance of bug eating.”

I referred them to Dave Gracer as the local Entomophagy Maven, and then sort of forgot about it. And then….Lo and Behold! They produced this project, with input from Dave and entomologists.

I’m not entirely sure what a Masters Degree in Innovation Design Engineering is, but if it produces results like this, I think we need more of them.  Well done!

More about the project:

“Ento is a project by Aran Dasan, Jacky Chung, Jonathan Fraser and Julene Aguirre-Bielchowsky, who are a team working together on the Innovation Design Engineering joint Masters course at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. We also collaborated with Kim Insu in producing the food, who is a chef in training at Le Cordon Bleu.

This project is the outcome of the team’s motivation to tackle the growing issue of food security in an increasingly hungry world. Discovering the environmental and nutritional benefits of insects as a sustainable alternative to the high energy required to produce other meats, we wanted to see how it could be introduced into Western cultures through design.

It’s not just about introducing a new food, it’s about understanding human perceptions and psychology, then using the design of innovative experiences and strategic thinking to drive cultural change.”

In other words, addressing the mental hangups we have about eating insects, as well as making the food look amazing. Their video addresses some of the ecological benefits to insect eating in a very amusing way.

Do Schools kill creativity?

I have to tell you, my creativity is pretty much nil right now, but that’s a function of overwork and too little sleep. I’m still trying, though, and  getting ready to write grants to fund some of our outreach programs.

The problem is, it’s EASY to teach science badly. But to do it well–and to produce  kids that treat life like a game of questions where you try to find the answers yourself, not just recite stuff you were told–is incredibly difficult.

I really enjoyed this TED talk about teaching and creativity, in particular. Also, it’s quite funny!

I  liked this line:

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

You can find a full transcript here.

An automated louse feeder

Recently, someone wrote to Skepchick and declared: “Creativity will never come from the skeptics corner.”

This is someone who clearly hasn’t actually practiced science, because every single project I’ve ever been involved with has involved scrounging, scavenging, jury-rigging, prototyping, and tinkering to come up with needed equipment and protocols.  Science is intensely creative.

Last week I happened to stumble across an article that demonstrates that creativity, and as a bonus, it’s about lice!  Lice continue to be a big hit at the Bug Blog, with the posts on pubic lice getting the top hits most days.

This nifty little paper describes some inventive entomological engineering related to lice:

“An automated feeding apparatus was developed to maintain the human head louse Pediculus capitis DeGeer) in vitro. With the use of valves and timers, banked human blood and saline from refrigerated reservoirs were pumped into and flushed out of the system every 7 d. During this rotational interval, bloodmeals were provided to head lice continuously…through a stretched Nescofilm-silicone sandwich membrane.”

This might not seem like a big deal, but in order to research an insect, you need a reliable, uniform supply of it.  Experimenting on insects of random ages or nutritional status makes it hard to say whether or not your treatment was the reason for changes seen.

So, entomologists have invented a variety of clever ways to feed and rear lice, mosquitoes, bed bugs, and a whole host of other blood-feeding insects in order to study them.  One common way to rear lice is to  strap them to your leg in a container.

Not many people will volunteer to host your research colony of head lice or the other colonies of lice you might have around the lab.  Obviously, the requirement that you “feed your own pets”  may also be an issue when trying to attract bright young graduate students and post-docs to your research lab.

Fortunately, it appears the inventive authors of this paper had some success, although the survival rate was probably not as high as they had hoped. It did, however, improve on an earlier system. And, bonus:

“Body lice (Pediculus humanus L.) and bed bugs (Cimex lectularius [L.]) also completed most of their life cycle on this apparatus.”

Those are definitely animals I’d rather not carry around in a tube on my leg so they can feed, thanks. Hopefully they will continue to refine their system in the future, and improve the survival rates.

The full citation is:

M. Takano-Lee, R. K. Velten, J. D. Edman, B. A. Mullens, and J. M. Clark. 2003. An Automated Feeding Apparatus for In Vitro Maintenance of the Human Head Louse, Pediculus capitis (Anoplura: Pediculidae).  J. Medical Entomology 40(6): 795-799.

Creative suggestions needed

I am trying to think of something creative to do with 300+ now defunct business cards. There is writing on both sides, BTW. Help! Ideas?

The trip out to the Biological Station has been fairly hazardous this week–there isn’t anything in the back of my car any more, since I’ve slammed on the brakes so many times to avoid deer in the road.  It’s all gone flying into the front seat.  (Of course, this means cleaning my car is now considerably easier.)

It’s a really long drive, and I’m having to rethink the plan to not move. If you want a deal on a rural Michigan farmhouse, let me know!