• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Hawkmoth Flight

Hawkmoth Flight

February 24, 2017
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/170224_sciup_hawkmoth.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

23054446513_0d45d29b1e_o Zoe Shuttleworth
A hummingbird hawkmoth hovers above a flower. (Zoe Shuttleworth/CC BY-2.0, via flickr)

BOB HIRSHON (host):

A perpetual-motion insect. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Like hummingbirds, insects called hawkmoths hover in midair, sipping sugary nectar from flowers with long, tube-like tongues.

ERAN LEVIN (University of Arizona):

If you compare the amount of sugar that hawkmoths can consume in one meal, it’s equivalent more or less for a human being to drink, like, 80 bottles of soda at once, so it’s a huge amount of sugar.

HIRSHON:

University of Arizona ecophysiologist Eran Levin says scientists once thought the hawkmoths turn all of that sugar into energy just to stay airborne. But he and his colleagues now report in Science magazine that some of it is converted into antioxidants that counteract muscle damage caused by the insects’ constant hovering. He says sugar doesn’t have the same effect on human muscles, but  the research could contribute to better treatments for people whose bodies can’t process sugar properly.  I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Children & Families, Education
Previous Post:Avoiding Arsenic
Next Post:Bee Ball

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos