this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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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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[–] [email protected] 128 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago
[–] Caboose12000 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

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

[–] Lizardking27 72 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

So sciencey.

[–] Custoslibera 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What?

Hell is the most scientific of all locations.

Hail science!!!

[–] HowManyNimons 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I understood that reference.

[–] HowManyNimons 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] ummthatguy 46 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

That just sounds like making a metaphorical hell literal

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

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

[–] Squeezer 59 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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…

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Like moths to a... Yeah

[–] alvvayson 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

According to this study LED lights made no difference.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 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 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

I also watched that last week.

[–] shalafi 1 points 10 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

why would they break their own invention?

[–] foofiepie 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

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

[–] dlpkl 10 points 10 months ago

Lmao suck it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] elbarto777 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Oh i bet, bugs evolve fast

[–] Art3sian 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

@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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Something something money something something materialism

[–] m3t00 1 points 10 months ago

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