Oh, had we but seen this video a few days earlier, in time for Halloween!

A three-minute thesis competition is a contest for PhD students in which they condense their thesis into a three minute presentation comprehensible to an intelligent audience lacking any background in the research area. Doctoral candidate Samuel Ramsey was the winner in such a competition at the University of Maryland and will go on to the worldwide competition. Congratulations, soon-to-be-Doctor Ramsey!

To present his findings even more briefly than the video, we have been assuming that varroa mites chiefly live on bee hemolyph but actually feed mainly upon the tissues in the bee’s abdomen known as fat body, a name that does not do justice to its nine important functions. Denied this food source and fed on only hemolyph the varroa do not live as long nor reproduce as well. So with a slightly strained metaphor we have been trying to stake vampires when we need a silver bullet for werewolves.

So it’s werewolves not vampires. And it’s Istanbul not Constantinople.