Summary: Exploding Termites Episode 25 by Jennifer Gagné (Click here to directly access the MP3) (Access the full text transcript) How would you feel if you knew you had a toxic crystal growing in your back, that one day you might use as a suicide mission to defend your kin? For a termite in the Neocapritermes taracua, this is a way of life. Listen to the podcast to learn more… Image: Termites showing the older members with the blue explosive “backpacks”. Image Credit: R. Hanus For more information: Aging worker termites explode themselves in suicide missions, article by Lin Edwards at Phys.org Termites explode to defend their colonies, article by Zoe Cormier on Nature.com J. Šobotník1, T. Bourguignon, R. Hanus, Z. Demianová, J. Pytelková, M. Mareš, P. Foltynová, J. Preisler, J. Cvačka, J. Krasulová, Y. Roisin. 2012. Explosive Backpacks in Old Termite Workers. Science, 337(6093):436. DOI: 10.1126/science.1219129 Jennifer Gagné is a trained journalist, who decided politics weren’t for her, but quantum mechanics was. After school, she peeked into a newsroom, but decided to find something a bit closer to her love of science. She is currently basking in knowledge at TRIUMF, Canada’s national lab of particle and nuclear physics, where she gets to nerd out as a communicator of science. She is also an alumna of the Banff Science Communications Program, where she found her kinfolk. Outside of her day job, she tells people stories of giant whales at the Beaty Museum, and tends to her pet Henry, an iron clad beetle that lives on her kitchen table and eats apples.
