We Owe Our Greatest Achievements In The Biological Sciences To Insects

Humankind’s modern scientific understanding of biological phenomena may seem sophisticated in today’s world, but the greatest advancements in biological science, as well as anatomy and ecology, have only been been made within the past 300 to 400 years. This seems like a relatively short amount of time considering everything that we know today about biology. In order to better understand why such rapid advancements occurred in the field of biology, you must understand the crucial role that insects played in early scientific studies.

Surprisingly, up until the mid-nineteenth century, scientists believed that many complex organisms formed from inanimate matter within the environment. In other words, they believed that biological life arose out of nothingness. Insects were thought to have originated from matter found within the environments that certain species inhabit. For example, worms came from the soil, termites came from wood and maggots came from the juices within spoiled meat.

In 1688, a scientist named Francesco Redi demonstrated that maggots come into existence after flies plant their eggs on spoiled meat. Unfortunately, the belief that many forms of life originate from inanimate matter persisted for another 200 years, despite Redi’s work. Once the 1860s rolled around, the well known scientist Louis Pasteur confirmed Redi’s theories with his own experiments. Pasteur also showed how common insect pathogens can lead to human diseases. Pasteur focused on silkworm pathogens to demonstrate the existence of insect-borne diseases.

The most important findings in the field of genetics were driven by studies on fruit flies. For instance, early genetic studies on fruit flies allowed scientists to understand chromosome structure, mutation, and sex-linked inheritance. Our modern understanding of physiology was fueled by early experiments on assassin bugs and various types of silk moths. The use of insecticides, which is invaluable for sustaining the world’s food supply, relies heavily on the use  of several different insects, such as flies, cockroaches, and hornworms in its research and testing. These insects allow developers of poisonous chemicals to test the toxicology of insecticides. More generally, the scientific study of insects has allowed researchers to better understand nutrition, metabolism, endocrinology, and neuromuscular physiology.

Do you believe that insects are still invaluable to modern scientific inquiry?