Do Butterflies Self-Medicate?
Biologist Jaap de Roode studies monarch butterflies, and his research has shed new light on the way we understand medication.
It turns out humans are not the only creatures that medicate to improve our quality of life. Animals from butterflies to baboons use naturally occurring pharmaceuticals to treat a variety of ailments.
Here is de Roode, explaining how the medical lives of butterflies may change our own medicinal practices from the always incredible TED stage…
What an incredible discovery!
I am always amazed at how little we know about the natural world. It seems like such a wealth of untapped knowledge, and the edge of our limits of discovery.
It is exciting to think about the future of discovery for any budding biochemist or biologist. The research to be done, the innovations to make, the untapped resources to learn from, there are what seem like infinite stones left to be uncovered in our understanding of life on our own planet.
Perhaps it is an amazing world simply because we know so little about it!
Stay beautiful & keep laughing!
-Liesl
