Automaton Zero

Incredible, right? I learned a lot about insect/plant and insect/fungus interactions in a class I took last semester. Some of that stuff can be pretty horrifying, especially the Cordyceps fungus you mentioned. My favorite is probably the diving ant. They gather food by literally diving into the digestive fluids of pitcher plants to retrieve arthropods that the plant has caught. And then there's the fact that some ants grow fungus farms and others herd aphids like cattle, a fact that I find downright adorable.

Haha, that is amazing! The social capabilities of ants never cease to amaze me. I'm actually taking a class right now on social insects, and it's absolutely fascinating. The fact that insects can perform such coordinated efforts through little other than pheromones is just incredible. I'd follow up with an insect related story of my own, but I think every story I have pales in comparison to the epic Sugar Pile War.

I was always too terrified of the bugs in my backyard to catch them, let along "experiment" on them. Of course, now that I'm studying them, most of the bugs I find go straight to the freezer and/or ethyl acetate jar (except mantids, because they make awesome pets). For science! That's so cool that you got to DNA sequence geckos! I might get the opportunity to do DNA sequencing on Pelecinid wasps this summer (I highly recommend googling them, they're pretty amazing).

Don't worry, I had no idea I could study insects either, at least not until two years ago or so. Right now I'm working as a curatorial assistant at a research collection, which is basically a huge collection of millions of dead insect specimens. We gather data about when and where the specimens were caught, give them taxonomic classifications (or try to, at least), and loan out specimens to researchers and taxonomists. Eventually, though, I want to research live insects, and take care of bees. Pest management is another big field, and so is researching disease vectors like mosquitoes, but I'm not too interested in either of those. There's also environmental research, veterinary entomology, forensic investigation... I mean, I'm a bit biased, but I think it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of direct handling of insects though, both dead and alive, so it's certainly not for everyone.

Definitely, parasitoids are some of the coolest insects out there! I can't imagine why anyone would ever be grossed out by such a thing... I'm partial to bees and cicadas, myself. Such precious little bugs, they are. Thank you for the advice, I'll be sure to check out the 4 week challenges. If I don't do one this time around, I'll certainly attempt one during the next round.

That's awesome! It must be great to have people so close that support you. I'm hoping that I might inspire some of my own family/friends to embrace their inner fitness nerds, eventually. I'm studying entomology. I used to be deathly terrified of insects until a few years ago when I somehow decided that they are actually the best thing ever and nothing to be afraid of.

Hello, I'm Zero, and I guess I'm kind of new around here. I'm a full-time student with two jobs who spends most of her free time playing piano, catching and raising insects, and collecting clocks. I've been reading Nerd Fitness articles for a while now, and it has encouraged me to implement small, gradual changes in my life. I've been really successful so far, and I recently joined Rising Heroes to get even more active and involved with my health. Unfortunately, I'm starting to feel my willpower waning. I'm about to finish the first round of midterms for this semester, and it's becoming ever more tempting to tell myself, "You have too much work to do, you don't have time to work out / cook a healthy meal / get adequate sleep!" Which really just translates to, "You're making excuses!" Well no more, I say! This sudden lapse in mental strength has shown me that it is dangerous to go alone through this lifelong fitness journey. I feel I would greatly benefit from people who both encourage me and hold me accountable. Since I know very few people that care about health and fitness (exactly one person, to be precise), I figured I could turn to Nerd Fitness instead. I'm still just a beginner when it comes to fitness, so I hope I can continue to grow in my knowledge and abilities through interacting with like-minded people. And maybe being a part of this community will finally push me to get out and go find a place to learn martial arts like I've always dreamed of doing. I look forward to seeing you all around!