[TED#1.1] Marlene Zuk: What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives

So, people are more afraid of insects than they are of dying. (Laughter) At least, according to a 1973 "Book of Lists" survey which preceded all those online best, worst, funniest lists that you see today. Only heights and public speaking exceeded the six-legged as sources of fear. And I suspect if you had put spiders in there, the combinations of insects and spiders would have just topped the chart. Now, I am not one of those people. I really love insects. I think they're interesting and beautiful, and sometimes even cute. (Laughter) And I'm not alone. For centuries, some of the greatest minds in science, from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson, have drawn inspiration from studying some of the smallest minds on Earth. Well, why is that? What is that keeps us coming back to insects? Some of it, of course, is just the sheer magnitude of almost everything about them. They're more numerous than any other kind of animal. We don't even know how many species of insects there are, because new ones are being discovered all the time. There are at least a million, maybe as many as 10 million. This means that you could have an insect-of-the-month calendar and not have to reuse a species for over 80,000 years. (Laughter) Take that, pandas and kittens! (Laughter)

More seriously, insects are essential.

We need them. It's been estimated that 1 out of every 3 bites of food is made possible by a pollinator.Scientist use insects to make fundamental discoveries about everything from the structure of our nervous systems to how our genes and DNA work. But what I love most about insects is what they can tell us about our own behavior. Insects seem like they do everything that people do. They meet, they mate, they fight, they break up. And they do so with what looks like love or animosity. But what drives their behaviors is really different than what drives our own, and that difference can be really illuminating.There's nowhere where that's more true than when it comes to one of our most consuming interests -- sex.

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재미난 표현

1.  Some of the greatest minds in ~ (~에 위대한 사람 몇몇)

- 보통은 스피킹할 때 Some great people in ~ 라고 말하지 않을까? 

2.  sheer magnitude(굉장한 영향력)

- sheer 은 보통 크기, 정도, 양을 강조하는 '순전한' 이라는 뜻. magnitude는 보통 지진의 규모 또는 크기를 의미. 

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출처

: http://www.ted.com/talks/marlene_zuk_what_we_learn_from_insects_kinky_sex_lives/transcript?language=en#t-1793