It’s the Matrix, but for locusts.
At the Department of Collective Behaviour, part of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, researchers are putting locusts into simulated worlds, both virtual and physical, in the hope that they can figure out how devastating swarms form and move. ■ About the Centre: https://www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/collective-behaviour/ https://www.ab.mpg.de/couzin
Edited by Michelle Martin https://twitter.com/mrsmmartin
Thanks to David Walter for the suggestion
This is the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt while filming, for a few reasons. First, of course, because of the locust swarm itself. Second, because animal research — even on creatures as simple and pestilent as locusts — always raises ethical questions. Now, the researchers are careful with the locusts, and I don’t think many people could have a problem with this. Indeed, most of the world currently has zero ethical restrictions on insect experimentation — but it’s still worth interrogating whether this is okay. And finally: because if we can do this so easily to less intelligent creatures… what’s to stop something more intelligent coming along and doing the same to us?
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This is the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt while filming, for a few reasons. First, of course, because of the locust swarm itself. Second, because animal research — even on creatures as simple and pestilent as locusts — always raises ethical questions. Now, the researchers are careful with the locusts, and I don’t think many people could have a problem with this. Indeed, most of the world currently has zero ethical restrictions on insect experimentation — but it’s still worth interrogating whether this is okay. And finally: because if we can do this so easily to less intelligent creatures… what’s to stop something more intelligent coming along and doing the same to us?
> what’s to stop something more intelligent coming along and doing the same to us?
This is a weird logical fallacy.
Humans would bore aliens as were so mundane
Who’s to say they aren’t already?
ChatGPT enters the chat
@Dan Mosenzon oh no, showing a certain amount of respect to a living creature, how terrible. People aren’t saying they should be treated as humans, but there’s a difference between just stomping a bug and hooking it’s brain and body up to machines.
“So what do you do for a living?”
“I glue retro-reflective tags to the backs of thousands of locusts”
2:58, it’s clear they intend to feed us bugs in the future as food shortages increase by design.
I work on swarms of mass destruction…
….. Sweet
The dream job)
It’s not a job. It’s a chore undergrads are given the privilege of doing in order to breath the same air as their professor. They don’t get paid for it.
My friend in my biology class is terrified of insects, and when we dissected locusts he was outside doing revision sheets. I’m sure he’d love to work here
Remind him that crabs and lobsters are related to cockroaches
@Bald i assume in the us?
@ferretyluv if they are planning on specializing in Microbiology, then having a fear of locusts isn’t that big of a deal
Tell him about the House Centipede. The Grey, furry legged thing you find turning on a faucet. Maybe he might like the one beneficial Bug that stays away from people, eats the other bugs, and then leaves politely.
@ferretyluv almost everyone in high school has to take at least a year of biology
This video _needs_ a follow-up like a year or two from now. I am so curious to see what they’ll discover.
@JohnMosesBrowningVEVO Holy cow, didn’t even clock that. You’re so right!
A year or two later: “the locusts have taken over the lab and are forcing the humans to run on the spherical treadmills”
By then it will be into military trials.
Imagine being able to go scorched earth on an enemy, *on the offensive,* without needing to invade with an army. You could starve and internally destabilize a population in weeks without one combat casualty.
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords
This is arguably the best video of recent. The topic is interesting and has a lot of implications for many fields beyond biology and its direct substudies. The camera work and close up shots are well timed and presented, Tom wrote a good script. The professor is also very detailed in his explanation but also does not obscure the topic by going into higher level concepts. Honestly he’s one of the best featured on this channel
Yes, I thought so as well
As a kid, grasshoppers fascinated me. In our backyard we had a huge diversity of species represented in their appearance, their flight characteristics, and their courting strategies, all relatively easy for a child to observe.
@Geoff Costanza conversely, nobody gardens anymore. This problem is noticeable also with birds of prey being so few and far between. We have a huge rabbit problem in the spring, squirrels steal bird food, and turkeys just exist in the fall. No predators. The tiniest things have no reason to be there
Watching this video reminded me of the broad variety of grasshoppers I saw in my yard as a kid. A few decades later, and I rarely see any. I’m certain it’s due to the pesticides that everybody puts all over their lawns.
The time lapse of them eating at 3:39 made me say “wow” out loud. I have seen plenty of before & after images, showing fields that have been ravaged by them. But to see them advance like infantry was something else.
edit: Tom’s face at the end when talking about the researchers coming up with new ideas right in front of him is great. Regardless of how uncomfortable he was at any other time, he looks absolutely gleeful there.
how you manage to find these unbelievably insane stories that no one has ever heard of to make these amazing videos about them just blows my mind… you’re such a gift to us and i love you so so much
side note, this is absolutely HORRIFYING
I think once you have done a few, people start sending you stuff. And if you have a big youtube presence, that is gonna be a lot
read Scienze (the montly journal)
He get’s contacted
terrifying*
@Abbo Fun Yes. He’s said a few times that he got invited to go see things others don’t get to see.
I’m also very fascinated with flocks of birds. And how sometimes they are so dense and they turn at the same time like a giant blob moving around seemingly random in the sky
That’s called a Murmuration. It’s really cool.
Back in 1958, there was a documentary on how blobs move. It’s called The Blob.
Every time the camera cuts to a large swarm of locusts, the video quality drops immediately – and thanks to a much older video by Tom, we also know why!
(It’s been said many times before, but it’s just lovely to see these concepts you’re taught occur in concrete situations)