Shaker of Science: What’s Bugging the Planet?

What can a single dead bug tell you about climate change? Not much.

However, if you put the 4 million specimens in the Academy’s Entomology Collection together — and our entomologists will be, well, pretty annoyed that you took out all the specimens and glued them together — a story of climate change may begin to emerge as you identify and organize them.

Or you can save some time, grab a drink and come to this month’s A Shaker of Science to hear the story right from the Academy’s entomologists instead!

A Shaker of Science is a pay-what-you-wish, interactive virtual happy hour where Academy scientists and staff can share their stories and adventures in a casual setting. Suggested donation is $10–25 per person.

Scientist Suggested Libations:

Temperance Cocktail: Greg’s Bug Juice

Short on time? Commercial Bug Juice is now available. But for a real entomological experience, try Greg’s summer camp-tested recipe: Mix a lemon-lime Kool-Aid drink packet with two quarts water and add sugar. Pour a 2/3 glass of lemon-lime Kool-Aid and mix the remaining third with your favorite lemonade. Garnish with gummy worms to taste.

Cocktail: Tanqueray and Tonic

A classically refreshing cocktail for after a long summer day in the field collecting insects. Fill glass with ice. Pour 1.5 oz of Tanqueray London Dry Gin and 3 oz of tonic water over ice. Add lime slice.

Beer: Yards Brewing Company, Loyal Lager

Aromatic Loral hops gives this lager a floral aroma that will send you buzzing from flower to flower.

Wine: Cuatro Rayas Tempranillo Rueda, La Seca, Spain

Bees, like the one depicted on the label, provide an unexpected service to help create your favorite vino. Generally, the grapes are wind pollinated, but surrounding vegetation that keeps the soil just right for the vines does require helpful bees for pollination.

About our speaker: Academy Entomologist Greg Cowper:

Greg Cowper is an entomologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences. He and his colleagues take care of the 4 million insect specimens in the Academy’s Entomology Collection. He is particularly interested in the Hemiptera, the true bugs, and the Orthoptera, the grasshoppers, crickets and katydids. Greg returned from a grasshopper expedition to South Africa in March 2020 just as international travel was shut down in response to the Covid pandemic. He joined the Academy in 2007.