Science Journey - Nature's Tango: How Insects Dance for Survival
Social interactions shape the everyday lives of all animals. For humans, how we interact with others influences our mental and physical health, decision-making, and overall behavior. For other organisms, social interactions are critical to survival in complex ecosystems. How animals relate to other creatures can affect their ability to escape from dangerous predators or forage for prey. In the insect world, interactions can look like a dance of nature.
Social interactions start in the nervous system, which in humans includes the brain, spinal cord, and nerve cells throughout the body. By detecting and combining sensory information like smell, sound, and touch, the nervous system allows animals to recognize and respond to one another, a key part of successful social interactions.
Despite the importance of social interaction, we still know little about how the brain processes sensory cues representing other living things and enables social behaviors. Jess's research aims to address this question using tiny insects called rove beetles. These beetles are useful in research because they show clear and measurable behaviors while interacting with other species, they have a wide range of social interactions, and we can access their nervous system in the laboratory.
By studying how rove beetles use their senses to interact with other species, Jess hopes to find out more about how their brains work and how they evolved to have these behaviors. One day, this information could help us understand how social behaviors are coordinated in the brains of other animals, including humans. In this talk, Jess will discuss her research and share her personal experience with dance and how it informs her scientific observation skills, problem-solving, and creativity.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2548776-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2548776-2
