Latest news with #JohnCooley
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
17-year cicadas – here for a good time, not a long time – are out. But which 17-year cicadas?
PERRY COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — In terms of fame and fortune — well, okay… maybe not fortune, but certainly fame! — no brood of 17-year cicadas matches Brood X, which last emerged in 2021. Anyone old enough also remembers the 2004 emergence, the 1987 one and so forth. But should Brood XIV (that's 14 rather than 10, for the Roman numeral-impaired) — emerging now — have at least as great a claim to fame? 'This is the brood,' said Dr. John Cooley, who studies cicadas at the University of Connecticut. 'The brood European colonists first encountered.' Indeed, the 1634 emergence of what would later be identified as Brood XIV cicadas is chronicled in a book called The Pilgrims' Promise by another of the world's most prominent cidada experts, Dr. Gene Kritsky. Cicadas emerge when soil warms to 64 degrees, and on cue, cicadas in southern Brood XIV territory, such as parts of Tennessee and North Carolina, emerged this spring, both Kritsky and Cooley said. In other parts of what everyone agrees is core Brood XIV territory, such as in Pennsylvania places like Milton closer to I-80, the wet and cool spring delayed the emergence, both said. But in the Duncannon area of Perry County — and nowhere more so than on the grounds of Buddy Boy Winery and Restaurant in Penn Township — cicadas are everywhere, singing what at least their fans (they do have their detractors) consider a sweet song. 'They're kind of fun, and I like the noise,' said Coreena Warner, who manages the winery. And for other people? 'If you don't like the noise, it'll be over here in about three weeks,' said Forrest Woodward, the chef, who prepares adventurous dishes like frog's legs and deep-fried rabbit — but nothing cicada. At least not on the food menu. There is a 'cidada killer' on the drink menu — garnished with two cherries floating on top, like beady red cicada eyes — and a (tasty) mix of liquors and juices but, alas, no actual cicadas in it. Back to the actual cicadas — and their short stay above ground — it's true: Cicadas are here for a good time, not a long time. 'The have to mate and lay eggs, and the adults die,' Cooley said. Then the eggs hatch into nymphs, which live underground for — in the cases of Broods X and XIV, anyway — 17 years before emerging. This is Brood XIV's year, so of course the cicadas here should be those, except for one problem, according to Cooley: Duncannon isn't in core Brood XIV territory. Scientists think cicadas count years based on something (no one is sure exactly what) related to the seasonal changes of the deciduous trees on which they feed — 'the same kinds of things that make tree rings,' Cooley said. Scientists are even less certain how cicadas count to 17, but Cooley said they sometimes make mistakes, and when they do, they miscount by increments of four years. His hunch: Maybe the cicadas here are Brood X 'stragglers.' After all, it's four years beyond 2021. On the other hand, he said stragglers are usually too small in number to sing loudly together, which is not the case with the ones in the woods around Buddy Boy. Kritsky said don't discount the possibility these are the real Brood XIV deal: USDA records documented cicadas in the Duncannon area in 1923 and 1940, which would correspond with the cycle. Both Kritsky and Cooley said a challenge for current cicada scientists is that no one was keeping records like the ones they're keeping — no one crowdsourcing cicada sightings on Kritsky's Cicaca Safari app, which 243,000 people have used to document what they've seen — in centuries past. (Heck, no one began using telephones to gather information about cicadas until the 1970s, Cooley said.) 'Having that many boots on the ground is allowing us to see specifically where the cicadas are coming out and how that relates to other broods,' Kritsky said. 'I'm not going to be around to tell you whether what's actually happening,' Cooley said. 'but 'We leave that to future generations to tell us.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Why Are Cicadas Extra Noisy This Year? Which States Are at Risk of Peak Disturbance
They're loud, they're downright horny, and after 17 years underground, they're back. If you thought spring allergies were the worst thing in the air this season, think again — billions of periodical cicadas from Brood XIV are emerging for a noisy, all-out mating frenzy. From Tennessee to New York, these alien-eyed insects are already making their presence known, and some are even infected by a fungus that turns them into zombie love machines. 'Nature is stranger than any science fiction that's ever been written,' evolutionary biologist John Cooley told the Scientific American while describing the phenomenon. Here's what makes this brood so unusual, why you'll hear them from dawn to dusk, and whether you should be worried. Periodical cicadas emerge in massive, synchronized swarms every 13 or 17 years, unlike regular cicadas that appear in smaller numbers every year or two. Once above ground, adults have one mission: to reproduce before dying off. Females lay eggs in tree branches, and when the eggs hatch, the tiny nymphs fall to the earth, burrow underground, and disappear — beginning the cycle again, not to be seen for another 15 years or so. Their return is usually triggered when soil temperatures reach around 64°F, typically between April and June. This year, warming trends pushed their emergence back by about two weeks. In some areas, like Tennessee, they've already started to appear, with sightings reported in mid-May. The 2025 cohort, known as Brood XIV, isn't just punctual — it's unusually frisky. Many have been infected by a bizarre fungus called Massospora cicadina, which hijacks their bodies, destroys their genitals, and supercharges their sex drive, effectively turning them into mating-obsessed zombies. Periodical cicadas typically measure about 1 to 1.5 inches long, with wingspans up to 3 inches. They're not especially big, but those bright red eyes definitely grab your attention. Their bodies are black or dark brown with bold reddish-orange markings, and their clear wings are lined with orange veins, making them pretty hard to miss once you spot one. Despite being frequently mistaken for locusts, cicadas aren't even close. They don't jump, they don't eat crops en masse, and they're not grasshoppers. In truth, cicadas are more closely related to stink bugs and bedbugs, part of the insect order Hemiptera, or 'true bugs.' Cicadas from Brood XIV are expected to emerge this summer in at least a dozen states across the country. In some areas, like Tennessee, they've already started to appear, with sightings reported in mid-May. Here's the full list of where you can expect to see and hear them: Georgia Kentucky Indiana Massachusetts North Carolina New Jersey New York Ohio Pennsylvania Tennessee Virginia West Virginia Even this particular sex-crazed brood poses no real threat to you or your beloved pet. Cicadas don't bite, sting, carry diseases, or secrete anything toxic. They're basically all buzz and no bite (literally). That said, they do love to make some noise. Male cicadas belt out high-pitched buzzes and clicks to attract mates, and when thousands are singing in unison, the volume can hit around 100 decibels — that's as loud as a motorcycle or a lawnmower. In some areas, the drone can last from sunrise to sunset, so if you're not a fan of nature's noisiest dating ritual, it might be worth investing in earplugs or a white noise machine. The post Why Are Cicadas Extra Noisy This Year? Which States Are at Risk of Peak Disturbance appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Epoch Times
15-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
1777 HMS Phoenix: Paper Money as a Weapon of War
Commentary Ships of Britain's massive Royal Navy, the largest in the world, inflicted great damage on American ports, property, and vessels during the years of the Revolution (1775–1783). Perhaps none of those ships wreaked more havoc than HMS Phoenix , and it accomplished its devious work not with a cannon but with a printing press. The bodies from the battle on Boston's Bunker Hill were buried just days earlier when the Second Continental Congress authorized the printing of paper money (see ' 'Efforts in war or peacetime to undermine the economies, societies, and governments of adversaries by falsifying their money,' wrote John Cooley in his 2008 book 'Currency Wars,' 'have proliferated since ancient times.' In the 1770s, the British adopted the ruination of the enemy's money as a potent instrument of war. HMS Phoenix was a frigate, a fifth-rate vessel and among the smallest in London's fleet. Built in 1759, she carried a mere 44 guns. As part of a flotilla, she bombarded New York City in mid-July 1776 before anchoring off Staten Island. By January 1776, Phoenix had begun counterfeiting continental dollars (mostly 30-dollar bills) and smuggling them onshore to help accelerate the devaluing of the new paper money. Think of it as a miniature Federal Reserve on the sea. Related Stories 5/2/2025 5/1/2025 Benjamin Franklin later wrote that the British plan for the American paper currency was 'to deprive us of its use by depreciating it; and the most effectual means they could contrive was to counterfeit it. The artists they employed performed so well, that immense quantities of these counterfeits, which issued from the British government in New York, were circulated among the inhabitants of all the States, before the fraud was detected. This operated considerably in depreciating the whole mass, first, by the vast additional quantity, and next by the uncertainty in distinguishing the true from the false; and the depreciation was a loss to all and the ruin of many.' In an article titled ' ceteris paribus , the less any one unit of it will be worth. Newman explains: 'During the American Revolution the method devised by the British was a powerful three-pronged attack. It consisted of (1) the preparation and distribution of actual counterfeits of the American paper money; (2) the encouragement of 'Tories' and cheats to counterfeit and pass counterfeits independently; and (3) the issuance of propaganda as to the excellent quality and enormous quantity of counterfeits in circulation. The degree of effectiveness of these activities cannot be measured other than by recognizing that American paper money depreciated most when British counterfeiting activity was at its height.' For a year and a half, Phoenix belched out huge quantities of paper money. American forces frequently captured individuals involved in distributing the British counterfeits, especially in the New York area. The British conducted similar inflationary activities from printing presses on land as well, and they counterfeited both continental dollars and local paper money issued by states. 'The speed with which prices rose and paper money became unacceptable,' Newman writes, 'was materially stimulated by British counterfeiting activity.' Price inflation, thanks to the printing presses of both the British and the Americans, ran as high as 50 percent per month by the early 1780s. HMS Phoenix departed New York in mid-1777, then sunk or captured a few French and American ships along the Atlantic seaboard before heading to the Caribbean. In October 1780, she sank in a hurricane that disabled the British fleet in the West Indies—although most of the men on board were rescued. We'll never know for sure, but it seems quite plausible that the greatest harm the Phoenix inflicted on America was accomplished with paper, not gunpowder. From the Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Red-eyed zombie bugs emerge hungry for sex after 17-year slumber — and they're set to take over these states
They're buggin' out. After lying dormant for nearly two decades, billions of sex-crazed cicadas will be emerging from their subterranean sleep pods hungry for love. However, this year, many will be extra horny thanks to the spread of a creepy, 'The Last Of Us'-esque zombie fungus. 'Nature is stranger than any science fiction that's ever been written,' said John Cooley, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, told the Scientific American while describing the phenomenon. 3 'Nature is stranger than any science fiction that's ever been written,' said John Cooley, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, told the Scientific American while describing the fungus. AFP via Getty Images Trees across the US have already been abuzz with the hornball bugs' siren-esque chirps after the Brood XIV class surfaced for the first time since 2008, USA Today reported. The red-eyed insects are the second largest of the periodical cicadas, a version that hunkers down underground for years — 17 in the case of Brood XIC — as nymphs, feeding on tree sap, before surfacing when the ground temp hits the requisite 64 degrees Fahrenheit. These cyclical critters are expected to break ground in 13 states this year, including New York, according to Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. The love bugs' goal is to find a mate and procreate in the four to six weeks they spend above ground before dying off, the Daily Mail reported. After copulating, the female deposits eggs so that her offspring can repeat the cycle when they emerge in the year 2042. 3 A map showing the spots of the cicadas' emergence. U.S. Forest Service In fact, their earsplitting siren sound, which is so loud it has prompted police calls, is actually a mating song that's used to attract prospective partners. Unfortunately, for many cicadas, possibly millions, mating will be especially intense due to a genital-destroying fungi called Massospora cicadina that ramps up their sex drive and turns them into 'zombies' — like those described in HBO's sci-fi horror series 'Last of Us' Affecting both 13-year and 17-year cicadas, the spores replace the insect's genitalia with a plug of fungus. After hijacking the host's system, it then urges the zombified cicada to flick its wings like an amorous female would. When healthy males try to mate with the imposters, they become infected and spread the fungus like an STD. 3 The fungal phenomenon has been compared to an STD. Gene Kritsky In other words, they're spreading a bug. 'By doing so, they can infect males and females alike … and they are tricked into doing so as much as they can for as long as they can before they ultimately succumb to the fungus and die,' Smithsonian Entomologist and Collections Manager Floyd Shockley previously told the Washington Times. 'It's sex, drugs and zombies,' quipped Cooley while describing this carnal cordycep phenomenon, which begins underground while the bugs are still nymphs. Fortunately, we have nothing to fear from cicadas, zombified or otherwise. 'They are harmless, they don't bite or sting,' Senior Research Scientist and cicada expert Dr. Chris Simon of UConn wrote to However, cicadas are known to 'pee' on people as a defense mechanism and they can be dangerous to young trees, however, as they lay their eggs in small tree branches, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency advises covering maturing saplings in mesh or netting to keep the insects out.
Scientific American
07-05-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
Prepare for ‘Sex, Drugs and Zombies'—Brood XIV Cicadas Are Coming
As spring warms the eastern U.S. and green shoots peek from the ground, other forms of life stir in the soil. Periodical 17-year cicadas in Brood XIV—one of 15 broods found only in North America—begin to creep from their underground burrows. Last seen in 2008, they will emerge in the billions across a dozen states from early May through June. Above ground, flightless cicada nymphs transform into black-bodied, winged adults, ready for a month-long bacchanal of song and sex. But for many cicadas—possibly tens of millions—mating will be a gruesome parody of procreation in which their body is turned into a disintegrating puppet by the deadly fungus Massospora cicadina, which only infects 13-year and 17-year cicadas. An infected insect will try to mate even though its genitals have been consumed by the fungus and replaced by a plug of fungal structures called conidiospores, which spread their 'zombification' effect on contact. M. cicadina makes male cicadas flick their wings like amorous females do; healthy males become infected when they try to mate with the imposters. The fungus also floods cicadas with cathinone, a stimulant that also occurs in khat, a plant chewed as a recreational drug in some parts of the world. In cicadas, cathinone may boost hypersexualized behavior. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. 'It's sex, drugs and zombies,' says John Cooley, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut. 'Nature is stranger than any science fiction that's ever been written.' 'World's Best Study Organisms' Fungus and cicada, zombifier and zombie: their relationship is at least 100 million years old, and scientists are still piecing together how it works, says Matt Kasson, a mycologist at West Virginia University. Every brood emergence helps address questions that can't be answered in a lab, such as when the fungus invades nymphs' bodies. 'When you're dealing with something that spends 16.9 years underground, there's a lot of uncertainty there,' Kasson says. When M. cicadina infects adults, it produces durable, thick-walled 'resting spores' that drop from its host's crumbling abdomen onto the ground. Resting spores infect other nymphs, which, after metamorphosis, develop their own plug of stalklike conidiospores—the spores that sexually transmit the fungus to other adults. But scientists don't know if resting spores infect nymphs after they hatch or when they surface more than a decade later. In fact, the fungus may have more than these two spore types; they can possibly produce others that kill nymphs underground, Kasson says. Researchers recently found that M. cicadina has the largest genome in the fungus kingdom, meaning that certain aspects of its biology—such as its reproductive cycle—could be quite complex. The only other fungi with a comparable genome size are rust fungi: plant pathogens with up to five life cycle stages. Given that rust fungi and M. cicadina both have unusually large genomes, M. cicadina might share other features with rust fungi, such as multiple spore varieties, Kasson suggests. According to Cooley, periodical cicadas' unusually long nymph stage has led to a lack of specialized predators of these insects, with one exception: M. cicadina. 'It's not surprising that the thing that would crack the cicada life cycle is a fungus that can have resting stages, so it can just wait out until the appropriate time,' he says. Because M. cicadina prevents its hosts from reproducing, the fungus may also affect cicada populations and brood distribution; that relationship, Cooley adds, is another piece of the periodical cicada puzzle. For Cooley, periodical cicadas offer a window into species distribution and how populations shift over time. Despite their lengthy underground stage, periodical cicadas are nonetheless good research subjects because adults are abundant and easy to find. 'They're loud; they're obvious; they tell you exactly where they are,' Cooley says. 'They turn out to be one of the world's best study organisms for asking really big evolutionary questions about species and speciation.' Over time, climate change and human activity have reshaped the cicadas' habitats: populations wax and wane, and some broods vanish entirely. Brood XIV will include three periodical cicada species: Magicicada cassini, Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada septendecula. Their emergence will show how the species and populations interact and identify potential mates of their own kind. 'What I'm going after directly is the question of range change,' Cooley says. 'I'm also looking for overlaps between this and other broods.' Within the broods, patterns of waxing and waning zombie infections can reveal how cicada populations change over time. Zombie Counting and Tracking Brood XIV cicadas will be most abundant in Kentucky and Tennessee, with smaller populations as far south as northern Georgia and as far north as Massachusetts. Places with more cicadas will almost certainly have more zombies, says entomologist Chris Alice Kratzer, author and illustrator of the field guide The Cicadas of North America. 'I would expect to see a lot more Massospora in Kentucky and Tennessee this year than in some places like Pennsylvania or Massachusetts,' Kratzer says. Based on prior records from the crowdsourcing app iNaturalist for other broods, Kasson predicts that approximately two to four percent of Brood XIV will be zombified. For people who want to contribute to M. cicadina research, 'uploading photos to community science platforms like iNaturalist is really essential for scientists like myself to figure out where the fungus is and is not,' he says. Kratzer, who has previously confirmed sightings of cicadas and M. cicadina for iNaturalist, is also verifying Brood XIV sightings for the platform. When someone posts a sighting of a cicada with a Massospora infection, Kratzer encourages the observer to create entries for both the cicada and the fungus. 'It's a very exciting part of science to be in because anyone with a camera or a microphone can contribute.' If cicada-spotters are patient, they could pinpoint a zombie or two. But even if they don't find any, the sheer number of periodical cicadas is impressive to behold. With predictions of as many as 1.5 million insects per square acre in some places, this year's Brood XIV emergence will be a sight that observers won't soon forget. 'Everybody loves a spectacle,' Cooley says. 'And if these aren't a spectacle, I don't know what is.'
