Following the swarm
New insights into the causes of our raging obesity epidemic are coming from an unusual source: locusts. Australian scientist Stephen Simpson’s years of research into the insects’ swarming behavior have led him step by step from physiology to nutritional needs to a wider investigation of animal nutrition and, finally, to the human diet. Simpson’s work highlights the importance of protein as a regulator of diet and how an animal on a calorie-rich but protein-poor diet will overeat until it gets the protein it needs. On Tuesday at Harvard’s Geological Lecture Hall, Simpson, who in 2012 was named academic head of Sydney University’s Charles Perkins Centre (which focuses on fighting obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease), described his path to discovery. The event, “Law of the Locusts: What Insect Swarms Teach Us about Cannibalism, Aging, and Human Obesity,” was sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the Harvard Museums of Science and...