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Australian bombardier beetle image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Peter Halasz (CC by-SA 3.0) |
Professor Andy McIntosh was familiar with the common fascinating information, but he has a different perspective and education, so he asked different questions than the rest of us may ask. His collaboration and examination led to practical applications (biomimetics/biomimicry) for us humans.
To read this article in its entirety or download the audio version, click on "The Mystery of the Exploding Beetle".Looking at high-speed photos of a bug blasting chemicals from its behind might fascinate most of us for only a few minutes, but not Andy. Someone with a doctorate in combustion theory doesn’t look at the world the way we do. He knew that there must be more to the story.Biologists have known about the beetle since the early 1800s, when the first reports were published about beetles shooting “artillery.” Later in the 1960s and 1970s, the world’s leading expert on the bombardier beetle, entomologist Thomas Eisner, made some exciting discoveries about the beetle’s complex chemistry, but many mysteries remained.What caught Andy’s attention in the new report was the obvious evidence of combustion, his area of expertise. Something amazing must be going on for an insect to set off a series of explosions and then to machine gun its enemies.
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