Dr. Richard Musser's Lab at Western Illinois University

On September 27th WIU Biological Science Seminar WG 202 and Zoom and available on zoom below. At 12pm CDT

Dr. Rick Essner, PhD.

Department of Biological Sciences

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

"Honey, I Shrunk the Frogs: Uncontrolled Landing Behavior in Miniaturized Pumpkin Toadlets"

Zoom - Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88148843945?pwd=MFluVWVPVnJxRVMzRmpObzFmWWNBQT09
Meeting ID: 881 4884 3945
Passcode: 764609

https://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php?release_id=19331

Musser Named Interim Chair of WIU Department of Biological Sciences - WIU News MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – Western Illinois University Department of Biological Sciences Professor Richard O. Musser has been named the department's interim chair, effective July 1. Musser has been a professor at WIU since 2012, and he previously served as interim department chair from 2016-18. He was an...

Nice video from University of Arizona

Insecta: Science That Stings Journey alongside leading insect scientists and Coyote Peterson to explore the most painful stings and the fascinating science of ​the unseen lives ​that sur...

CONGRATULATIONS Simeon,

Simeon successfully passed his oral exam. Congrats 🎊

Advisor: Dr. HUm-Musser

Good job

WIU Students Honored at ISAS Conference - University Relations - Western Illinois University MACOMB, IL – Twelve Western Illinois University students recently won honors during the Illinois State Academy of Science (ISAS) Conference in Chicago.

How a plastic-munching caterpillar could help save the earth
By AJ Willingham, CNN
Mon April 24, 2017
Even the smallest among us can be big heroes. Take the lowly wax worm, for instance.

The larva of the greater wax moth is considered a huge pest in Europe, because it acts as a parasite in bee colonies.
However, its bizarre eating habits may help solve a huge environmental problem.
See, the wax worm is apparently not averse to eating plastic. An amateur beekeeper in Spain discovered this when she plucked some of the pests from her beehives and put them in a plastic bag. The worms eventually ate little holes in the bag, chewing through the plastic at an alarming rate.
This led to a wonderful idea: What if these so-called pests could actually help break down polyethylene, a common and non-biodegradable plastic currently clogging up landfills around the world?
How good are these little grubs?
The beekeeper is actually Federica Bertocchini, a scientist at the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria. She and two researchers from the University of Cambridge's Department of Biochemistry put together a study to see just how good these little grubs were at passing the plastic, so to speak.
The answer? Very. The team found the wax worms broke down polyethylene plastic bags faster than other recently-tested methods. There are still more tests that need to be done, but if scientists can replicate whatever causes the breakdown, if could be used to alleviate the burden of non-biodegradable waste.
"If a single enzyme is responsible for this chemical process, its reproduction on a large scale using biotechnological methods should be achievable," said Cambridge's Paolo Bombelli, first author of the study.
The team also used a rather analog method to make sure it was an actual chemical process helping the caterpillars get rid of the plastic, and not just some voracious, bag-centric appetite:
"To confirm it wasn't just the chewing mechanism of the caterpillars degrading the plastic, the team mashed up some of the worms and smeared them on polyethylene bags, with similar results," a summary of the study reads.

Illinois State Academy of Science conference, second day
Ammar: 1st place oral, molecular division
Adeyemi: 1st place oral, microbiology division
Bokula: 1st poster, molecular division
Sierra Semel: 3rd place poster, Zoology division

Illinois State Academy of Science conference, poster session, WIU Students