The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

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entomology

Hungry caterpillars eat plastic pollution

12 July 2025 grant 0

IFL Science introduces us to “plastivores” — a species of waxworm caterpillars (often thought of as beehive pests) that get fat gorging themselves on plastic waste… Read the rest “Hungry caterpillars eat plastic pollution”

USDA finds what caused America’s biggest bee die-off.

3 July 2025 grant 0

Science shares research that identifies a massive killer of honeybees — a virus that’s carried by pesticide-resistant mites:

U.S. beekeepers had a disastrous winter. Between

… Read the rest “USDA finds what caused America’s biggest bee die-off.”
Scientific illustration of a white plume moth, long legs, very white against a black background.

Science Art: Pterophorus pentadactyla MHNT, by Didier Descouens

2 June 2025 grant 0

This is an image of a white plume moth, a photograph taken of a specimen in the Muséum de Toulouse in August of 2011. The moths really look like this in life, too. But this one was on display in … Read the rest “Science Art: Pterophorus pentadactyla MHNT, by Didier Descouens”

Scientific illustration of a sawfly feeding on a plum, purplish-black insect glittering darkly over a white larva on a hard, green fruit.

Science Art: Hoplocampa minuta, Plommonstekel Ugglan, 1920.

19 May 2025 grant 0

“A kind of sawfly living on plum trees,” according to the Wikimedia Commons gallery of images from Nordisk familjebok. They’re considered a pest — the young … Read the rest “Science Art: Hoplocampa minuta, Plommonstekel Ugglan, 1920.”

Farewell, murder hornets. We got you.

19 December 2024 grant 0

AP News reports that a particularly dramatic “invasive exotic” species – Vespa mandarinia, the Asian giant hornet, better known as the “murder hornet”… Read the rest “Farewell, murder hornets. We got you.”

Hyper-sexual zombie cicadas… on speed.

6 April 2024 grant 0

That’s how the CBS headline starts, and I can only improve upon it by adding the drugs in the interest of accuracy. The story is about a sexually-transmitted fungal disease expected… Read the rest “Hyper-sexual zombie cicadas… on speed.”

Scientific illustration of four ambush bugs.

Science Art: Four Phymata species from “Notas Sobre Phymatidae Neotropicales II,” October 1951.

24 March 2024 grant 0

An illustration of four ambush bugs from Anales de la Sociedad Científica Argentina, found in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Or parts of ambush bugs.

At the top left is Phymata carioca… Read the rest “Science Art: Four Phymata species from “Notas Sobre Phymatidae Neotropicales II,” October 1951.”

Bumblebees teach each other.

7 March 2024 grant 0

Nature shares a study that found that bumblebees somehow communicate the solutions to complex puzzles to each other, something that only humans were thought to do. Instead, the insects… Read the rest “Bumblebees teach each other.”

Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.

3 December 2023 grant 0

Wired reveals a very strange insect-monitoring device called DAS, or “distributed acoustic sensing,” normally used to track vibrations made by seismic shifts and volcanic… Read the rest “Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.”

Scientific illustration of a raspberry beetle, from Nordisk familjebok

Science Art: The beetle (Byturus tomentosus) living on raspberry, from Nordisk familjebok, 1920

17 September 2023 grant 0

A raspberry beetle and its favorite fruit, from a very special category on Wikimedia Commons.

We do love an encyclopedia.

Scientific illustration of a banyan-dwelling plant bug named for the goddess Lakshmi. The young ones are resplendent in royal blue and crimson.

Science Art: Habitus images of Chimairacoris lakshmiae, 2015.

5 June 2023 grant 0

This is a plant bug. That’s the technical term – it’s part of that group of insects called “true bugs,” the family Miridae; plant bugs are the subfamily … Read the rest “Science Art: Habitus images of Chimairacoris lakshmiae, 2015.”

The last leg of the longest butterfly migration has been mapped at last.

12 April 2023 grant 0

Science News brings tidings from Central Africa, where painted lady butterflies born in Europe spend their winters in the longest migration of any butterfly:

Pinpointing exactly where

… Read the rest “The last leg of the longest butterfly migration has been mapped at last.”

Science Art: Papillons, from Larousse Universe, 1922

1 January 2023 grant 0

Thanks to an unexpected gift from an old friend, I was just reading an article in the print edition of Scientific American about the Sora people of eastern India, who have a unique culture … Read the rest “Science Art: Papillons, from Larousse Universe, 1922”

Butterfly wing-patterns come from ancient DNA, switched around by junk.

28 November 2022 grant 0

The National Science Foundation follows researchers taking a second look at “junk” DNA – the genes that don’t seem to do anything and instead just sit in a genome… Read the rest “Butterfly wing-patterns come from ancient DNA, switched around by junk.”

Silk for Teflon. Non-stick silk. Silk without friction.

7 November 2022 grant 0

The National Science Foundation puts a spotlight on Tufts University, where researchers have taken proteins from the cocoons of silk moths and used them to create a new water-repellent… Read the rest “Silk for Teflon. Non-stick silk. Silk without friction.”

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  • University of Illinois Chicago - College of Applied Health Sciences : Clinical Assistant Professor
  • The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids): SCIENTIST – Developmental, Stem Cell & Cancer Biology Program
  • University of Detroit Mercy: Tenure Track Faculty Biology
  • University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia: Assistant Professor
  • Mohammed VI Polytechnic University: SUSMAT-RC - Postdoctoral in Computer-Aided Design and Descovery of Sustainable Polymer Materials
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Honorary Troubadours
  • Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science.
  • Laura Veirs, who knows her way around a polysyllable.
  • Thomas Dolby, godfather of scientific pop.
  • Squeaky, fact-based rock about fusion containment & rocket science.
  • Cosmos II, a.k.a. Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher.
  • Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, astrophysicist who makes music from cosmic radio sources.
  • Dr. Jim Webb, astronomy professor and acoustic guitarist.
  • Artichoke, the band behind 26 Scientists, Vols. I and II.
  • They Might Be Giants, unrelenting proponents of scientific popular song.
  • Symphonies of Science, the people who make Carl Sagan and others sing.
  • Giant Squid, doom metal about the sublime horrors of marine biology.
  • Gethan Dick,6 scientists, 6 musicians, 1 great album
Related Projects
  • Squid Pro Crow
  • Grant Bandcamp
  • Grant Soundcloud
  • Penitential Originals Playlist
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"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851

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