Home / Series / TED Talks / Aired Order / Season 2015 / Episode 23

Jaap de Roode: How butterflies self-medicate

Just like us, the monarch butterfly sometimes gets sick thanks to a nasty parasite. But biologist Jaap de Roode noticed something interesting about the butterflies he was studying — infected female butterflies would choose to lay their eggs on a specific kind of plant that helped their offspring avoid getting sick. How do they know to choose this plant? Think of it as “the other butterfly effect” — which could teach us to find new medicines for the treatment of human disease.

English
  • Originally Aired February 9, 2015
  • Runtime 15 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Network YouTube
  • Created April 8, 2015 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified April 8, 2015 by
    Administrator admin