WHYY Features Student, Faculty Work on Flesh-eating Beetles, Bone Research

November 3, 2014

If there is a perfect day for a story about flesh-eating beetles, it’s Halloween.

On Oct. 31, students and faculty in Arcadia’s biology and forensic science departments were featured in “The role of flesh-eating beetles in forensics and bone research at Arcadia University” on WHYY’s The Pulse, a weekly news show airing on WHYY-FM. Faculty members Tobias Landberg, Ph.D., and Karen Scott, Ph.D., as well as students Katrina Hosbach ’16, Olena Kostyshak ’15, and Tammy Smith ’16 were included in the radio broadcast and the accompanying story.

The thought of flesh-eating beetles might turn your stomach, or send shivers down your spine.

But those feelings might – might – change if you knew how students and professors at Glenside’s Arcadia University are using these pushpin-sized bugs, more commonly known as carpet beetles.

In a tiny lab inside Boyer Hall, is a white, jam-packed freezer that's full of dead, wild animals that'll be soon be lunch for the beetles.

Read and listen to the full story.

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