(May 2, 2015) We
humans forbade it a long time ago, but there’s one insect that uses chemical
warfare of the sort we banned in the Geneva Conventions. That’s the bombardier
beetle, which creates a noxious, boiling hot stream of chemicals inside its
body to spray at enemies when threatened.
Researchers using the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S.
Department of Energy user facility at Argonne National Laboratory, have gotten
the first-ever look inside the living beetle as it sprays. The results are
published today in Science.