I Followed a Bug for a Day
An answer to a question that has eluded philosophers and scientists for centuries: What’s the deal with bugs?
Bugs are everywhere and nobody is quite sure what they are for. As a journalist with a keen interest in science, I have been puzzled by the question of what bugs are and what the hell they are up to for as long as I can remember. For instance, we know that they like to buzz around and skitter about. But what are they actually doing? What are their lives like? Nobody knows. The only way to find out is to do the hard work of finding one and following it. In my profession, we call that kind of intrepid fact-finding “going out into the field,” though in this case it was more like going out into my backyard and, later, the creek near my house.
At any rate, on the suggestion of my friend Jesse McLaren, I decided to spend a day last week following a bug to see if I could finally succeed where so many entomologists have failed (yes, there’s actually a word for people who study bugs — how embarrassing that not a single one has been able to figure out what their deal is yet). My mission: Get to the bottom of one of nature’s greatest mysteries — what’s up with bugs?!
These were my ground rules:
- Once I have chosen a bug to follow, I must follow that bug…
