© Pint of Science, 2024. All rights reserved.
Animal camouflage: Biology meets computational neuroscience, art and war.
Professor Innes Cuthill
Animal camouflage is of the most striking examples of natural selection, and has long been an inspiration for military camouflage. However, understanding how the viewer is fooled is a challenge - camouflage is an adaptation to the eyes and mind of another animal, often with a visual system different from (and sometimes superior to) that of humans. Innes will take you into the colour world of animals, exploring what this tells us about perception and evolution.
Wasps: the gangsters of the insect world
Dr Seirian Sumner
No-one loves wasps, the maligned gangster of the insect world. Our mission is to make you think differently about the insects that you fight over jam with. Without wasps, gardens would be swamped in insect pests and spiders - we might even have wasps to thank for the invention of paper! We will journey through the world of wasps: Monarchies, rebellions, ASBOs and wasp police; undertakers, negotiators, welfare wasps, menopausal wasps, and wasps with aspirations above their station. Perhaps you won’t fall in love with wasps tonight, but we can guarantee you’ll see them in a very different light tomorrow. Follow @waspwoman
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.