IN-PERSON @ THE BELL HOUSE, Secret Science Club presents Biologist Daniel Kronauer on Tuesday, July 25 @ 8PM, FREE!

Wild and wonderful…

Secret Science Club BUGS OUT with Biologist DANIEL KRONAUER

IN-PERSON @ THE BELL HOUSE on Tuesday, July 25, 8PM (Doors open at 7:30PM), Free!

We humans are a ubiquitous, abundant, and social species. But there is one animal that has us beat. Scientists estimate that there are 20 quadrillion ants on Earth, or about 2.5 million ants for every human. And they are extremely gregarious little beasties, with social lives oddly reminiscent of our own. Strange, intriguing, and wildly successful, ants have been known to raise livestock and crops, wage war, and design architecturally stunning homes. And they’re very chatty.

At the next Secret Science Club, award-winning biologist & ant whisperer Daniel Kronauer explores the sophisticated social lives of ants. He asks:

-- Why are some animals social and others are not? What are the pros and cons of being a social species?

-- How are pheromones used by ants to communicate? (Imagine if, instead of speaking, humans exuded nuanced scents: a sniff of violet for “danger” or a whiff of vanilla for “dinnertime.”)

-- How do sisters in a colony divide up work and take on new roles, so that one turns into a diminutive caregiver, another grows the huge mandibles of a soldier, and another becomes an enormous queen?

-- Are ants in a colony like neurons in one big brain? How do ants make collective decisions?

-- How are social rules enforced in the ant world? Can ant society tell us anything about the human condition?

DANIEL KRONAUER is Stanley S. and Sydney R. Shuman Associate Professor and head of the Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior at The Rockefeller University. He is the recipient of numerous research awards, and his insect photography was recognized in the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. He is the author of the book, Army Ants: Nature’s Ultimate Social Hunters. The Kronauer lab has been in the news several times over the past year for a slew of new findings, including discovering that ants secrete and share a form of “ant milk” and the creation of the world’s first transgenic ants (with neurons that flash fluorescent green). The lab—which has over 100,000 ants in all stages of development in different colonies—is highly interdisciplinary, combining research in ecology, ethology, genetics, epigenetics, and neurobiology.

Before & After
-- Raise your glass (and your antennae) to “the little things that run the world” with our cocktail of the night, the Love Bug!
--Groove to six-legged tunes
--Stick around for the scintillating Q&A

This ultra-social edition of the Secret Science Club meets Tuesday, July 25, 8PM @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Subway: F or G to 4th Ave, R to 9th St.

Doors to the performance space open at 7:30PM.

Please bring ID: 21+. No cover. Just bring your smart self!

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Image credits: Daniel Kronauer: The Rockefeller University; Clonal raider ants tagged for individual behavioral tracking--the ants form a main "nest" cluster around larvae: (c) Daniel Kronauer

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.