An unusual scientific paper has just appeared online. Its authors are all entomologists. But the paper is as much about Lego as it is about insects.
The first author is Steen Dupont, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London who specialises in a family of moths known as the Limacodidae. He is also a self-confessed Lego fan. “I build gadgets for fun.” But his latest project and the subject of a paper in the journal ZooKeys is more than just child’s play.
Insects are fragile, especially if they are centuries old with a pin stuck through them. So an entomologist intent on manipulating a specimen, either to study it or to photograph it, needs a bit of kit to help. Whilst there are several vice-like devices that are commercially available, these can be expensive and often aren’t able to accommodate insects of different sizes, says Dupont. The range of Lego gadgets he and his colleagues have devised would appear to get round these problems. “You can take them apart, put them in a bag, travel with them.” They are as robust as any of those commercial models, he says.
Once the insect is in place, with its pin secured in a small plug of foam or cork stuffed into a connector peg, a system of cogs allows the researcher to twiddle it into any orientation. “There’s quite a few museums that are already interested,” says Dupont. “When we show it to people they are quite excited. They find it fun. They are very optimistic about trying it.”
The publication of these Lego creations has not put a stop to Dupont’s tinkering. He is currently working on a new design, a stage that will incorporate a mobile phone, allowing researchers a quick and easy way to obtain a photograph to send on to a colleague. “You can get a very, very good image without having to take the specimen to the microscope,” he says.
Dupont and his colleagues have thoughtfully put together step-by-step instructions to allow others to construct an insect manipulator of their very own.
I know what I’m going to be doing this weekend.
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