Squirm learning

"I fear, my liegeA historical word meaning a feudal lord or king. , that ye ailment doth worsen," said the doctor. "Ye medicine lacketh in vigour." The king looked alarmed. "By the Lord Harry!" he exclaimed. "A poxSeveral viral diseases causing pustules on the skin. One example is chickenpox. upon the mountebankSomeone who pretends to be something they are not, or a seller of false medicines. that brought it hither! What dost thou counsel, good doctor?" The doctor picked up a bucket of squirming white insects. "This, my liege," he replied. "Ye application to ye royal person of - maggots."

Until recently, this example of medieval medicine would have been dismissed by all but a few doctors as ridiculously ancient. But now the scientific community as a whole is starting to take it seriously.

Maggots clean wounds by eating bacteriaA large group of single-cell microorganisms. Some cause disease in animals and humans. and dead tissue, reducing the surface area and allowing faster healing. They were popular with doctors in the Napoleonic WarsA series of wars (between 1803 and 1815) between the French Empire under Napoleon and differing European powers. , and may even have been used by ancient aboriginalIndigenous or existing in a land before the arrival of colonisers. tribes.

The NHS began using maggot therapy in 2004. Between 2007 and 2019, there was a 47% increase in patients being treated with it.   

Rosalyn Thomas, a Welsh foot-care specialist, uses maggots to treat patients with diabetesA medical condition causing there to be too much sugar in the blood. who would otherwise have to undergo surgery. She admits that some people are put off by the "yuck factor", but says:¹ "I've only had one patient who took about three weeks to reluctantly agree... I can't remember anybody point blank refusing."

Maggots fell out of favour a century ago when penicillin and other antibioticsMedicines that fight bacterial infections. were invented. But with the rise of superbugs which are resistant to antibiotics, maggots are making a comeback.

Medicine is not the only area in which humans are taking their cue from insects. Car design is another, particularly when it comes to avoiding crashes.

There are already devices which can make a car brake automatically when it is in danger of hitting something. Some analyse a picture of the space around the car - but in bad light they may not work very well. Others use radar, but they consume a lot of energy and are hard to miniaturise.

Now scientists at Penn State University are designing devices based on a neuronThese are the cells found both in the brain and throughout the nervous system. While they are essential for memory, they do not themselves contain memories. Indeed, an adult brain contains around 41% fewer neurons than a baby's brain. in locusts' brains called the Lobula Giant Movement Detector. This allows millions of insects to fly in swarms without bumping into each other.

It is hoped that the technology will prevent self-driving cars from hitting other vehicles and pedestrians.

"We are always looking for animals with unusual abilities, ones that do something better than humans," says one of the team, Saptarshi Das.² "Locusts are just incredible. What these creatures can do is very humbling."

Using insects to inspire design is known as biomimicry. Furniture designer Marlene Huissoud, who comes from a family of bee-keepers, has created a wardrobe made out of thousands of discarded silkworm cocoons.

Computer scientists have studied the way ants find the shortest route to food and used it to produce algorithms to solve complicated problems. Many postal services use "ant colony optimisation" to work out the most efficient way of making deliveries.

Yes: Where humans have gone wrong is in thinking that they can design things better than nature. By studying the way that even the smallest beings work we can learn the best way to go about things.  

No: Insects are basic creatures compared to humans. We live in a highly complex world. Locusts might be able to help us avoid crashes, but we could never have invented cars except through our own ingenuity.  

Or... The most important thing we can learn from insects is how to work together in large communities. The problem of climate change could be solved if we all co-operated as well as ants.