The insect glue, produced from edible oils, was inspired by plants such as sundews that use the strategy to capture their prey. A key advantage of physical pesticides over toxic pesticides is that pests are highly unlikely to evolve resistance, as this would require them to develop much larger and stronger bodies, while bigger beneficial insects, like bees, are not trapped by the drops.
The drops were tested on the western flower thrip, which are known to attack more than 500 species of vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops. More than 60% of the thrips were captured within the two days of the test, and the drops remained sticky for weeks.
Work on the sticky pesticide is continuing, but Dr Thomas Kodger at Wageningen University & Research, in the Netherlands, who is part of the self defence project doing the work, said: “We hope it will have not nearly as disastrous side-effects on the local environment or on accidental poisonings of humans. And the alternatives are much worse, which are potential starvation due to crop loss or the overuse of chemical pesticides, which are a known hazard.”
There are plenty of ways we shorten a specific phrase that renders it general but still understand it as the specific version.
The word “chemicals” is rarely misunderstood when used this way. Colloquially, many/most people mean “harmful chemicals” when they say it.
Is there room for misunderstanding? Yes. Is that a problem? Not any bigger than most problems with using spoken/written language to communicate.
You don’t come off as wise when you point this inaccuracy out, and It doesn’t invalidate the whole article.
You are correct, but having spent 7 years of my life learning general chemistry, biochemistry, and organic chemistry… I will fight with my last breath that chemicals exist.
To play devils advocate, lets say we “agree” that “no chemicals” means no harmful chemicals… now we have given corporations the weasel defense to say anything has “no chemicals” because they will define away any measure of harm.
Pointing out the incorrectness of the article doesn’t mean it has no merit, but now the critical reader must be extra cautious because the author has demonstrated very poor domain knowledge, and their conclusions are suspect.
Well “technically correct” is the best kind of correct, so I’ll agree.
Why not just say “no toxins”?
“Toxin” is somewhat subjective.
Raisins aren’t a toxin… for us. But they are for cats and dogs.
And not all harmful chemicals are toxic, per se.
Sodium hydroxide does not produce systemic toxicity, but is very corrosive and can cause severe burns in all tissues that it comes in contact with.
Because: “The dose makes the poison”.
I’ve watched chunks of society freak out over everything from basic food ingredients to vaccines because they contained polysyllabic words that people decried as “chemicals”.
And I’ve spent my whole damn life listening to people abuse the word “theory” until the the Christofascists and neo-nazis managed to become mainstream.
People abuse technical words with a purpose. Don’t play apologetics for them because you believe their understanding of words is more nuanced than they are.
I don’t ingest anything with ingredients I can’t pronounce.
Drinks mercury
But that does spare them from the ravages of guacamole and nopales
M-mecr… ur… mercre…
I’ll have the lye, please.
You don’t understand, this new pesticide consists of tiny leaflets with stories so complelling the insects cannot stop reading them. They are literally (not literally) glued to the page.
edit: and yet the leaflets would be made of chemicals and in the long run would be harmful
You don’t serve the greater good by misusing words. A new sticky substance as an alternative to chemicals? If you want to educate people through your reporting, then you try to make it accurate and choose words carefully.
It doesn’t invalidate the whole article, fair enough. But it does make a “wise” person question what else they got wrong.
Everything is chemicals.
Yep. Cooking is a chemical reaction.
Beware of dihydrogen monoxide.
Oh, but I long for the days when this was a joke. ;-(
Which is why it should be considered bad practice to use the word “chemicals” as a synonym for “poison.”
No, because a wise person would understand that the journalist understood the audience they were speaking to, ie: the general public, and used the proper verbiage.
An unwise person would argue language semantics.
Exactly. Intelligence is knowing what the right words are. Wisdom is knowing what words to use to get your point across to people who aren’t as intelligent as you.
Hard disagree. Science reporting has to summarize and simplify, but it should strive to remain accurate and not “dumb down.” By making “chemicals” the Boogeyman it misleads people. Certain chemicals are dangerous and others are just fine. Natural chemicals, oxidized or not, can be very toxic. Lab made chemicals can be mostly inert.
It just really feels weird to me to describe something as GLUE, but then also say that it doesn’t use chemicals. One thing I take into consideration most times I’m using glue, is whether the item I’m gluing will be melted by the glue.
I get what they’re trying to say, but glue is a description of a chemical compound in my mind.
Because it’s oxidized plant oil, info that is right in the article.
Inspired by chemical defenses used in nature by plants such as the sundew.
Is cocaine not a drug because it’s organic plant sourced?
I doubt any kind of glue can be free of harmful chemicals, especially in the long run.