[gentle music] - Hi there, I'm Frank Graff.

An amazing look at common insects.

Meet the worm that looks like a spoon.

And take a drive in a solar powered car.

We're digging into a grab bag of science, next on "Sci NC".

[music continues] - [Announcer] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you, who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Sci NC" is provided by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

[music continues] [music continues] - Hi again and welcome to "Sci NC".

We begin with one of those science facts that just makes you shake your head.

Scientists estimate there are roughly 900,000 different kinds of insects in the world.

That makes up 80% of all the world species.

Now we see and interact with some insects more than others.

Moths and beetles are a good example, which is why Adrian Smith at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences gives us a new look at moths and beetles.

[gentle music] - The shockingly bright yellows and oranges of this Virgin tiger moth are there to serve as a warning sign to predators who are thinking about eating it.

But for me, they're a reminder of how awesome it is to see insects in flight up close and in slow motion.

[music continues] I mean, the thing that really gets me about this and all the rest of the bugs you'll see in this video are all the details there are to notice.

Like for this one, how the wings flex during each beat, the long tufts of hair-like scales where the wings meet the body, or even how the hind wings are delicately fringed in a slightly different lighter shade of orange.

Making these flight videos gives me an opportunity to learn about different insects beyond the ones that we study in this lab.

So this video is the most interesting moths and beetles I've come across in the last three months.

[gentle music] This is another type of tiger moth, the Clymene moth.

If you saw this one at rest, it'd only be showing you the upper side of its forewing.

And it'd look like this moth was just black and white.

But when it burst into the air, it turns orange revealing the striking coloration of the hind and underwings as well as its body.

[music continues] Here's a third tiger moth species, a Banded tussock moth.

The adult is pretty understated in appearance, but the caterpillar takes a different approach being covered in spiky tufts of predator deterring hairs.

When this one lifts off, you can see the subtle coloration pattern distinguishing the species.

A turquoise stripe running down its back between its wings.

[music continues] A lot of insects I film don't cooperate and won't fly in front of the camera.

This Luna moth is one of them.

Luna moths were on my bucket list of things I wanted to film flying, but all I could get were a few half-hearted wing flaps and then nothing.

But a giant silkworm moth that I seem to have great luck with is this, a Polyphemus moth.

The last moth flight video I made had one of these in it but this one is a male, which you can tell because of how big the antennae are.

[music continues] This is my favorite shot.

The wings will come down through the frame and reveal the eye spots and the decorated top sides of the wings.

This one was probably a pretty old male, since a lot of the scales on the top of the forewing have been worn off.

[gentle music] Lifting off from my finger, this is a Waved sphinx moth.

To identify it, the field guides will tell you to study the patterns and lines on its forewings.

And after staring at it for a while, you kinda get lost in all the detail.

At rest against the bark of a tree, these patterns would make the outline of the moth nearly invisible.

[music continues] Finally, this is a Small-eyed Sphinx moth.

In real life, the darker parts of this moth appear almost purple.

I'm always surprised by how heavy Sphinx moths appear in comparison to the size of the wings.

But despite how it might look, they have no problem getting into the air.

Now it's time for some beetles.

These sequences come with some surprises, some species that I'd never thought I'd find or be able to film in flight.

For instance, this is the head and antenna of the first thing I'll show you, a male glowworm beetle.

[gentle music] Males like these are easily distinguished from females because females look something like this.

As adults, they retain a larval body form.

They also produce a bioluminescent light and hunt millipedes.

They're pretty amazing.

The males take flight with their giant antennae trying to locate and sense the long range pheromones females use to attract them.

Besides their giant antennae, the males are pretty unique with their shortened elytra or hardened forewings, their elongated body and their bulging eyes they use to sense bioluminescent signals of glowing females.

[gentle music] Now this, a Predaceous diving beetle was something I thought for sure wouldn't fly on camera.

I mean, it's preferred mode of getting around is swimming.

But then it did this.

Popped open its elytra, awkwardly found its footing, and dove headfirst into a flight.

[music continues] A diving beetles legs and whole body really are adapted for swimming.

In these sequences, you can see how their paddle-like hind legs get no traction when they try to push off and leap into a flight.

On the right, notice a droplet of water that came off the beetle for a sense of just how slow motion these sequences are.

Cerambycids or Longhorn beetles like this one, an Alder Borer, are one of my favorite groups of beetles.

They're known for the typically long antennae and their larval habits of feeding on and in woody plant material.

I like how in these sequences, you can see how the space between the middle and hind legs accommodates for the downbeat of the hind wings.

They seem just to perfectly fit in that gap.

This is also a Longhorn beetle, but one that's typically found as an adult hanging out in flowers.

Just like the last one, in the air, it spreads all its legs out as wide as it'll go.

It seems like it's trying really hard not to miss grabbing onto a landing spot if it happens to fly into one.

[music continues] Finally, at just about six millimeters in body length, the smallest insect in this video is this Long-necked ground beetle.

A thing to notice here, is how the wings are nearly folded in half at the start and only unfold once the beetle starts flapping.

It's like this little beetle has to shake them open.

- [Frank] Want more "Sci NC"?

You can find these stories and more on our YouTube channel.

Like and subscribe.

Now for a unique look at a pretty common worm.

Now you probably associate worms with soil.

The spoon worm lives in the ocean and you guessed it.

It boasts a unique feature that does indeed look like a spoon.

Producer Rossie Izlar shows us.

- Animals without backbones make up 97% of all life on the planet, things like worms, crabs, beetles, sponges.

They're the little things that make the world go round.

And there are thousands of them here in this collection at the Museum of Natural Sciences.

And today, we're putting one of them, this four inch spoon worm under the scope.

The spoon worm or Echiuroidea is so-called for its spoon-like proboscis.

The worm uses it to bring organic matter or detritus to its mouth, which is located at the base of the proboscis.

spoon worms live almost exclusively in the Atlantic Ocean, which is where museum curator Bronwyn Williams found this one.

- This was a really exciting find.

So it uses its proboscis to actually move across the substrate by extending it, kinda grasping hold of something and then pulling and dragging itself.

And you can actually see a little bit of mucus hanging off that.

So it uses that mucus to trap the detritus to basically... Yeah, it's sorta like a sticky trap.

- [Rossie] Here's another weird thing about spoon worms.

A larger species known as the Innkeeper spoon worm are a delicacy in South Korea.

It's most often eaten raw and can be sweet and chewy.

Like all invertebrates, spoon worms are a valuable nutrient recycler and good eating for lots of species.

They're also surprisingly elegant.

- This is just amazing to watch.

There's a lot about nature that blows my mind.

- [Announcer] Follow us on Instagram for beautiful images of North Carolina and cool science facts.

- Electric vehicles are part of the push for adopting green energy and moving away from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels, of course, one of the drivers of global warming.

And while you probably have seen an electric vehicle on the road, you haven't seen a solar powered car.

NC State's engineers built one.

So come along for a ride as part of our series marking the 100th anniversary of NC State's College of Engineering.

[engine rumbles] - Now, there was a time when learning to work on cars was sort of a right of passage for teenagers in America.

You'll see how things work using trial and error.

You'll learn how tools operated.

You might even take it out and see if you can drive it in a race.

Now there's this shop behind the engineering buildings at North Carolina State University where a different version of that same story is taking place, only in this case, the car is powered by the sun.

I'm Dr. Nehemiah Mabry.

I'm a proud engineering graduate here of North Carolina State University and I'm gonna take you to meet the SolarPack team.

[gentle music] - We call this SolarPack Experimental, which is our EV conversion car that we use for various event purposes and competition.

- [Nehemiah] Competitions like the Formula Sun Grand Prix showcases solar cars designed and built by students from dozens of colleges around the world.

The race is held on a 2.5 mile track.

In the summer of 2022, the team from NC State brought home a trophy for the fastest lap, three minutes and one second.

All powered by the sun.

- [Matt] Part of our goal is creating a very practical solar electric vehicle.

As you can see here, we've got a production car that we just converted into an electric vehicle.

- [Nehemiah] Wow, this is sweet.

And I think this is an old Volkswagen apparently.

And so, we got some high voltage cargo back here.

What do we have back here in the back?

- Oh, we have about 1,300 battery cells spot welded together.

- Okay.

- And altogether, that's delivering about 400 volts and 20 kilowatt hours.

- So these, we build these ourselves.

We buy these individual cells.

They're little thin wafers of silicon and when you shine light on them, they produce a small amount of voltage and you can basically harvest that voltage to charge up the batteries and make the car run.

- Got it.

So, you take all your new technology, your new ideas.

You put it on here and you see how it goes?

- [Matt] Mhm.

- Alright, I'm looking at it.

This is so sweet, y'all.

This is like...

It looks like some "Back to the Future" type deal, right?

- [Emmet] You turn the time circuits on.

[object ricochets] - This car was the brainchild of people during Covid when everything was kind of falling apart.

The team at the time, had this idea to experiment with the electrical components.

- [Nehemiah] One of the strengths of the SolarPack team is that everybody is from different disciplines, bringing together students from engineering, business, environmental science, and of course design.

And it's not just for the guys.

What your major?

- I'm mechanical engineering.

- Mechanical engineering.

- I'm electrical.

- Electrical.

- English.

- English?

Did you say English?

- Yeah.

- That's right.

- English.

- So, it's interesting to interact with these people who just have these crazy knowledge that I don't understand.

- [Nehemiah] Hey, show me what's under the hood.

Now obviously, if this was like a traditional gas powered car, it would look quite differently under here.

- This was a 2001 Volkswagen Golf GTI and that had a manual transmission, a 1.6 liter four cylinder.

But we took the actual regular transmission here and we just retrofitted in a electric motor here.

So instead of having that big engine block there with the shaft that goes into the transmission, now it's just an electric motor that feeds into the transmission.

And then, we also have our motor controller here, which takes like your gas pedal, your... Well, I guess you couldn't call it gas necessarily.

- [Nehemiah Right, electric pedal?

- [Matt] Your electric pedal.

- Like you all aren't just getting this ready for some race.

You're also showing that it's possible to have solar powered consumer vehicles?

- Yeah.

- [Nehemiah] SPX.

And how in the world can y'all have so many plastic components without it overheating?

- First of all, there's a pretty robust like water cooling loop through all the components that actually produce a lot of heat.

But, at least compared to the other solar cars and especially compared to when it was still a gas car, we have had absolutely no thermal issues.

These electric components are extremely efficient in that regard.

They don't produce a lot of waste heat.

- Man.

Hey look, I just saw this.

You all got this SolarPack logo on the front.

- Mhm.

- All right, hey listen.

Kudos to you.

I love it.

How about we take it for a spin?

Can we take it for a spin, Matt?

- Absolutely.

- All right, let's do it.

Ready to go?

["Back to the Future"] Tightened up.

Lock and loaded.

We're locked and loaded.

- Let's go.

- Right, man.

A SolarPack Experi... Now, you've driven this before.

This isn't an experimental driving test, is it?

- Oh yeah.

No, I've driven this at 65 miles an hour.

- Okay, got you.

All right.

I think we're ready to go.

- All right.

- Let's make it happen.

- Let's roll.

- Alright.

Oh, what a smooth takeoff, man.

It didn't even feel like the car was on.

- Yeah, it's really quiet.

- Hey, how's it going?

You'll hear the motor going a little bit, once you get up to higher speed.

But yeah, otherwise it functions pretty normal.

- Yeah.

Now let me ask you this.

This is charging the moment we step out into the sun?

- Mhm.

- Okay.

So there's no type of like initiating of the charging that you have to do?

- Yeah, we have a little controller in the back that handles all that.

It's constantly measuring how much power you're getting.

- Automatically.

Okay.

- When you're giving it a lot of electric power, like when you're really hitting the throttle, then yeah, it'll suck some power outta the batteries.

But otherwise, yeah, if you're going slow, it'll just run everything off the solar panels.

- Got it.

- This thing handles very well.

Like it's got power steering.

It's got the good transmission.

Like you can hit it and it's got some power.

- I mean, I just felt that just now.

Like you just gave me a little, uh.

- Yeah.

- A little bit of gas there.

I feel like the terminology hasn't caught up with the technology.

- Yeah, that's correct.

I mean, we find ourselves more often than not saying, "Oh yeah, we're hitting the gas pedal."

- Yeah, exactly.

Now how do you make sure you don't run out of power and you're not like stranded somewhere in the middle of your route?

- We've got a little screen here that tells us how much battery we've got left in the battery pack.

So, you can just kinda watch that and see how many volts you have left in the battery.

- Got it, got it.

And when you're getting low, does it sort of measure... [indicator beeps] Uh-oh, gaslight on.

- Yeah, that's the dashboard getting mad at me 'cause we don't have the regular gas engine, so it's worried about oil pressure.

- Oh, got it, got it.

- Yeah, we don't have oil pressure anymore.

- Man, this is a nice ride.

Nice ride.

Nice, smooth kinda cruise here.

- Mhm.

So I'll give it a little bit of gas here on this strip.

- Okay.

- [Narrator] For through this safe and constructive outlet, these boys satisfy their craving for knowledge and speed.

Out of their ranks, come the engineers who develop improvements for your car and mine.

- It's a common and wise bit of advice.

Take time in your life to stop and smell the roses.

Oh, thank you.

In other words, slow down and admire what's around you.

That's what NC Culture Kids are doing on a forest walk with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

[birds chirping] - Hey everyone, I'm Emily.

- And I'm Brandon.

- We are here at the Lake Raleigh Woods on NC State's Centennial Campus to do a little early morning hiking and a little exploring.

- And we're joined by Falyn from the Wildlife Resources Commission.

Falyn, what are we doing today?

- We are gonna go and try to see some wildlife or signs of wildlife or honestly, whatever neat stuff we can find out there.

- That sounds awesome.

Let's go.

Awesome.

[upbeat music] [music continues] - [Falyn] And the one that's singing over there is a cardinal.

[bubble pops] [playful tweeting sound] - That's a cardinal?

- Mhm.

- State bird.

[bird calling] - That's right, and they're counter singing.

So there's a male over here that's like, "This is my territory."

[dramatic chime] And then there's another one that's further away that's back singing, they're going back and forth.

It's like, "Okay, well that's fine, but this is my territory."

[dramatic chime] [Emily laughs] - [Brandon] "Good morning.

Just to let you know, this is still my house."

- [Falyn] Exactly.

- [Emily] That's so cool.

- [Falyn] Ooh, hey, buddy.

Toad.

They camouflage so well.

- Yeah, I know, you could hardly see him.

- This guy is an American toad.

He's the biggest toad species in North Carolina and we actually have four different toad species.

I could pick him up if I wanted to.

They're really easy to catch.

But the thing about picking up amphibians, like frogs and toads and things like that, is that their skin is actually what they breathe through.

So when you pick 'em up, they can actually absorb whatever chemicals or dirt you have on your hands and that can actually make them sick.

So, it's actually a good idea not to pick up toads as cool as it is.

Also, if you pick 'em up, they will definitely pee on you.

[Emily gasps] So, another reason not to pick up frogs and toads.

- Look, but don't touch.

[Falyn and Brandon laugh] Got it.

Well, there he goes again.

- Bye, little guy.

- Bye.

Brandon, you should name him.

- [Brandon] Tyler.

Tyler Toad.

- [Emily] Bye, Tyler Toad.

- Bye, Tyler.

[chuckles] [bubble pops] - [Funny Voice] Bye bye.

- [Falyn] There's the Red Russula.

I love mushrooms.

Mushrooms are the coolest.

And today is a really great day for finding mushrooms because it just rained.

And mushrooms actually will come out in the rain.

[thunder rolling] [rain pattering] And the the cool thing about them is that that is basically just like the fruit of a much larger organism that actually like is underground and weaved in through these leaves and in the soil.

And the mushroom is just like the small tiny part of it that comes out as like the fruit.

It's the fruiting body.

It's called mycelium.

When it rains, it's like, "Oh, I think it's time to make mushrooms."

And then it'll pop up.

And so, if you go hiking after a rain, definitely look around for mushrooms.

This is one of the non-edibles.

This is a Russula mushroom.

They're very pretty.

Nice, bright red on the top and kind of white on the bottom.

And never eat a mushroom unless you know 100% that it is an edible one.

[laughs] [Brandon chuckles] - That's good to know.

[keyboard clicks] [speed rewound speech] [keyboard clicks] - Never eat a mushroom unless you know 100%.

[dramatic chime] that it is an edible one.

- Cool.

- And it's got ants and slugs on it and they're eating it.

This is like really great food.

- [Emily] They can eat it.

- Yeah, all sorts of bugs.

[upbeat music] - [Brandon] It's so pretty out here.

- [Emily] I know.

This is a great trail.

- [Falyn] We got some cool crawfish chimneys.

So, they're little crustaceans.

Look just like miniature lobsters.

And they're hiding way down under there.

And they build a tunnel to get down to the water level.

So they're aquatic.

And when they're digging down, they just kind of like throw the mud up through the chimney and they form this cool like poopy pile looking thing.

[all laugh] - [Emily] It's a pile of mud.

- So yeah, whenever you see these like kind of big piles of mud, there's a crawfish under there that lives...

It's like a little crawfish house basically.

[upbeat music] - [Emily] Cool.

[toy squeaks] [horn beeps] [cartoon feet drumming] - [Brandon] Was that too much?

[Emily laughs] - [Falyn] Hey, the lake.

- [Emily] The lake.

- [Brandon] Wow, this is so pretty.

- Yeah, this is beautiful.

- Yeah.

There's all sorts of birds on the water too.

[music continues] - [Emily] Cool.

- [Falyn] Oh, did you see the heron?

- [Brandon] Oh, I see him, just chillin'.

- [Emily] Oh, I see him too.

- Just vibing.

Oh, he's sneaking?

One's sneaking.

- He's sneaking.

- [Brandon] Oh sneaky, sneaky.

- [Falyn] You know, they're so gorgeous.

Like these are Great Blue herons.

They're so graceful [ethereal music] and like long and slender.

And when they're flying it's like, "Oh wow, they're so pretty."

And then they open their mouths and it's like, bleh.

[Emily laughs] - [Brandon] Ew.

- [Falyn] They make the most awful noise.

[laughs] - [Brandon] People have said the same about me.

[Falyn and Emily laugh] [upbeat music] - [Falyn] Millipede alert.

- Yeah, a millipede.

- [Falyn] Because we have like tons of species in North Carolina and some of them are like super cool.

Look at this guy.

- It's pretty.

- Whoa.

- [Falyn] Millipede means a thousand legs.

- [Emily] Do they actually have a thousand legs?

- No, they don't actually have a thousand legs, but they have a lot of them.

Chill.

- I think he likes you.

- I think he does like you.

- Yeah.

Do you wanna see if he likes you?

- Mm.

- Um.

- [Comical Voice] No.

- [Falyn] Just give him more to walk on.

[Emily and Brandon laugh] - [Brandon] It's just the legs, isn't it?

The little feet?

- It is.

- Yeah.

- Hello friend.

- [Falyn] They can go for days like that.

"Yeah, I'm like a treadmill."

[all laugh] There, let me put you back.

[Falyn] Fly, be free.

I mean, crawl slowly.

- [Brandon] Making my way downtown.

Walking fast, faces pass and I'm homebound.

[upbeat piano tune] [Brandon hums] We should name this millipede Peter.

- Oh, it's right at your feet.

- Yeah.

[upbeat music] - You really seem to know your stuff when it comes to plants and animals and mushrooms.

- Oh, thanks.

I love being a wildlife biologist.

I have so much fun working for the Wildlife Resources Commission.

It's never a dull moment.

Every day's different.

- Yeah, that's awesome.

- I can't wait to go home and tell my friends and family all about the Wildlife Resources Commission.

What kind of stuff do you do?

I wanna tell them all about this.

- Oh, well that's a great question.

You know, a lot of people know that the Wildlife Commission is responsible for managing species that you can hunt and fish, but we also manage and protect the species that you can't hunt and fish like from common animals to our rare and endangered ones.

We kind of are responsible for conserving all wildlife in North Carolina.

- Sounds like you're doing great work.

- Oh thanks.

[laughs] - Awesome, thanks again, Falyn, for having us out here.

- Thanks for having me out.

[Brandon humming] - That might actually be like a Nymph wood roach.

You wanna hold it?

- Yeah.

- [Falyn] Here you go.

- Whah, oh, oh.

- Oh, oh.

- Okay, take it back.

Ew.

- Take it.

- [Brandon] Take it.

I hate it.

I hate it.

- [Falyn] It pooped on me, millipede poop.

- Ew, well, what?

- Oh.

- That's so much.

- Totally pooped on me.

- [Brandon] That's so much poops for a little body.

- I know, it is.

- Well, it's a big millipede.

- And that's it for "Sci NC" for this week.

If you want more "Sci NC", follow us online.

I'm Frank Graff.

Oh, hold on.

A special guest to to say goodbye.

Oh, thank you very much.

[Frank yelps] [gentle music] [music continues] [music continues] [music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "Sci NC" is provided by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

- [Announcer] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you, who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.