On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Millions of Mormon crickets swarm across western North America—not to devour crops, as do the more familiar locust hordes, but apparently to flee from one another. An international team studying a one-kilometer-long swarm in Idaho last year found that the flightless crickets were avid cannibals. When the scientists left food out for the insects, they clearly preferred meals high in protein and salt, nutrients the crickets are themselves rich in. Impairing cricket mobility (by gluing them to rocks) substantially increased the risk of cannibalization, suggesting that the insects swarm to escape death from behind. Although these forced marches are obviously dangerous for the crickets, apparently traveling alone is even more so, often quickly leading to death from predation. These findings, published online March 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, could elucidate why locusts and other insects swarm.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
