locust
edyong | January 29, 2009Serotonin is a chemical jack-of-all-trades. It relays messages between the cells of the brain and in doing so, controls everything from anger to sleep, body temperature to appetite. But in one insect, it is the key to Pandora's box, periodically unleashing some of the most destructive swarms on the planet. It is the chemical responsible for turning solitary desert locusts into massive plagues.
With desert locusts, you get two insects for the price of one. For most of their lives, they are positively antisocial and will avoid other locusts - a far cry from the devastating swarms that farmers…