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submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by Shkshkshk@dice.camp to c/science@lemmy.world

New research shows that the insects flying around the streetlights are in fact in a living hell that we made for bugs.

@science

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44785-3

Essentially, their tiny bug brains think the light is the sunset, so they keep turning to keep the "sun" at the same angle so they can go "straight." No matter how far they fly, they don't make any progress. They are trapped in this little hell we made just for them, not understanding why they can't get to where they are going.

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[-] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 128 points 8 months ago

They are trapped in this little hell we made just for them, not understanding why they can’t get to where they are going.

same

[-] Shkshkshk@dice.camp 17 points 8 months ago
[-] Caboose12000@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago
[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 0 points 8 months ago

The toaster is brave. The vacuum, however...

[-] Lizardking27@lemmy.world 72 points 8 months ago

All the best scientific articles use phrases like "in living hell".

So sciencey.

[-] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago

What?

Hell is the most scientific of all locations.

Hail science!!!

[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Are they getting much science done down there? Obviously it must be helpful that all of history's greatest scientific minds are gathered in one place -- but if nobody's serving them breakfast then maybe they're perpetually hypoglycemic and not doing much good thinking.

[-] Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

I understood that reference.

[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago
[-] Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago
[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 61 points 8 months ago

Open flames are more humane. Then they just burn up so they're not trapped forever.

That just sounds like making a metaphorical hell literal

[-] Shkshkshk@dice.camp 5 points 8 months ago

@Kolanaki brings a whole new meaning to "all those bugs should be burning in hell"

[-] Squeezer@lemmy.world 57 points 8 months ago

One evening I built a campfire to keep warm on the banks of a river in southern France. As the fire got going, millions of moths poured from the trees into the flames. As the numbers increased the flames leapt higher, and the moths became the fuel. The horror, the horror…

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 months ago

Like moths to a... Yeah

[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I learned this back in the 90s, I'm surprised new research is needed.

The solution seems to be LED lighting. The right LED bulbs don't trigger the bug brains.

Edit to add source (below) and I forget the detail: it's about using LEDs with less blue light, since blue light affects the bugs.

https://phys.org/news/2022-10-impact-energy-efficient-streetlights-insects.html

[-] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 23 points 8 months ago

According to this study LED lights made no difference.

[-] Shkshkshk@dice.camp 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

@alvvayson Existing research was about "how do we stop the bugs from circling our lights?". This is about *why* the bugs circle the lights. It artificially triggers the dorsal reflex, which disorients the bugs.

[-] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

Which LEDs? LEDs are pretty much all giving off the same two colors to make white: blue and yellow (in a single chip made of a blue LED and yellow uv-reactive phosphor). Warm white, cool white, same thing just varying intensities of each color. Only cheap color-changing LEDs (now) will use R/G/B chips lit together without dedicated white chips. What wavelengths are they tracking?

[-] modifier@lemmy.ca 8 points 8 months ago

Shout out Shuji Nakamura, inventor of the blue LED. Kinda broke the whole thing wide open.

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 8 months ago

I also watched that last week.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Watched that video last night. That was more fascinating than it had any right to be.

I've been an electronics nerd since the 70s, and somehow never noticed blue LEDs becoming a thing.

[-] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 8 months ago

why would they break their own invention?

[-] foofiepie@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago
[-] Shkshkshk@dice.camp 13 points 8 months ago

Unless you try to take a picture of them. The autofocus spooks them

[-] dlpkl@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

Lmao suck it

[-] Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago

I wonder how bugs will evolve to adapt to this. I wonder if we could see bughavior change within our lifetimes

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

We already have. Not with this specific trait, but definitely with other ones.

[-] Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

Oh i bet, bugs evolve fast

[-] Art3sian@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Well I can’t see at night so cry about it, bugs.

[-] Andomonir@dice.camp 4 points 8 months ago

@Shkshkshk @science I read this too a few weeks ago, and it got the old noggin joggin'.

What if some higher lifeform has done the same to us? Our sun could be the gods' bathroom light.

[-] ComradeKhoumrag@infosec.pub 1 points 8 months ago

Something something money something something materialism

[-] m3t00@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

they will evolve. they don't seem to have any trouble breeding

this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
233 points (95.3% liked)

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