It’s Bugs’ World and We’re Just Living In It with Jessica Ware

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:00)
Negin, I was like weirdly attracted to these bugs that we were talking about.

**Negin Farsad** (0:06)
And I'm like emotionally connected to them.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:09)
Ooh, how did that happen? Coming up on StarTalk. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.
This is StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson, you're a personal astrophysicist. And I got with me Negin Farsad. Negin, welcome back.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:35)
Oh my god, hello.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:37)
What having you?

**Negin Farsad** (0:38)
I love being here on this hot summer day.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:40)
Yeah, excellent. You know what we're gonna talk about today?

**Negin Farsad** (0:44)
Tell me.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:45)
Bugs.

**Negin Farsad** (0:45)
Oh, so delightful. Literally love it. When a bug lands on me, I just think, oh, this is great, love a bug.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:55)
Well, I not be an expert, but I work in an institution that contains them.
Not only experts, but also bugs that they study. Back for your third time on StarTalk, Jessica Ware, Jessica, welcome back.

**Jessica Ware** (1:09)
Thank you for having me. Can't get enough, I'm excited to talk to you.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:12)
One of those times we talked about cicadas. Because you're like one of the world's experts on these ugly bugs.

**Jessica Ware** (1:18)
I think it's pronounced beautiful and charismatic.

**Negin Farsad** (1:20)
I mispronounced it. Did you say they were charismatic?

**Jessica Ware** (1:25)
Yeah.
Colorful, check. Sounds beautiful, check. They do cool things with the genitals, check. That's charisma.

**Negin Farsad** (1:35)
Do they give enlightening stump speeches on the road in national politics?

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:41)
On tree stumps, yes.

**Negin Farsad** (1:44)
Ah, see what I did there?

**Jessica Ware** (1:45)
They do.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:46)
So let me get your whole title here. Division Chair in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology.
So these are spineless animals.

**Jessica Ware** (1:54)
Exactly, well, the people in my division or the insects in them, or a little bit, no, no. I call it, I jest.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:00)
What you study, yes.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:01)
And you're curator of protists, basal hexapoda, and non-holometabola. Did I pronounce all that right?

**Jessica Ware** (2:11)
I would say non-holometabola, but you could say.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:14)
Oh, holometabola. I like that.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:16)
I have no idea what any of that is. But they're creatures on this earth.

**Jessica Ware** (2:21)
Exactly. So there are insects that have complete metamorphosis. You know the story, the hungry caterpillar, and it goes from an egg, then there's a caterpillar, then there's a pupal stage, where there's a complete rearrangement of its internal and external anatomy, and it emerges as a butterfly. That's called complete metamorphosis, is one group that does it, holometabola.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:40)
I did not know that's the official term for that.

**Jessica Ware** (2:42)
Yeah, that's called holometabola. It's a whole metabola, like it's a complete metabolic change of its body.
I don't study those. I study all the ones that don't do that.

**Negin Farsad** (2:53)
Oh, non-holometabola.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:55)
She just described what she doesn't study.

**Jessica Ware** (2:58)
Yeah.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:59)
Non-holometabola.

**Jessica Ware** (3:01)
So like a baby grasshopper hatches from an egg, and it just is a small version, and it just molts to a larger and larger size until it's the same size as an adult grasshopper. There's no complete rearrangement of its body.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:12)
You're also a PI, Principal Investigator, the Institute for Comparative Genomics. This is one of the jewels in the crown of this institution.

**Jessica Ware** (3:21)
It's true. We are able to really understand 400 million years of evolution through the genome, through whole genome sequencing.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:28)
Cool.
And you're a professor in our built-in Gilda Graduate School. Yeah. Loving it.

**Jessica Ware** (3:34)
Loving it.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:35)
Yeah. So you're the one to talk about bugs.

**Jessica Ware** (3:37)
Well, insects. Bugs are just one kind of insect. Not to be-

**Negin Farsad** (3:41)
Tell me that. They're all bugs.

**Jessica Ware** (3:42)
Not to be that guy.

**Negin Farsad** (3:44)
Stop. But also non-hold-a-monadic or whatever, just so we're clear.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:50)
Does she study non-bugs?

**Jessica Ware** (3:53)
Okay.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:54)
Let's just figure this out. What's a bug?

**Jessica Ware** (3:57)
So bugs are in the one particular kind of insect, and they're in the order Hemiptera. They're called true bugs. They're the only ones that are actually bugs. All the rest are just different kinds of insects. Dragonflies are dragonflies, beetles are beetles, bugs are bugs. They're just a kind of insect, and they all are united because they have a mouth part that's sucking. They have like a little straw. It's so beautiful. A little straw and a little pump to suck up things. So they suck up plant juice mostly, except for the ones that suck up blood. Yeah.