ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Laura McHenry is an author on ‘ Sublethal glyphosate exposure reduces honey bee foraging and alters the balance of biogenic amines in the brain’, published in JEB. Laura conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Dr Margaret J. Couvillon's lab at Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, USA. Laura is now a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the lab of Dr Margarita Lòpez-Uribe at The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology, USA, investigating animal behavior science to safeguard and promote the livelihoods of both people and wildlife.
Laura McHenry
How did you become interested in biology?
Jean Abel, my elementary school science teacher, raised monarch butterflies with us every year. When the pale eggs hatched into striped caterpillars, my classmates and I would rush outside to collect milkweed leaves to keep them growing. When they neared pupation, we would check on them constantly, hoping to catch one in the wiggly act of forming its green chrysalis flecked with gold.
Then came the real anticipation: the emergence. No matter what else was going on, if a chrysalis started twitching, class paused. We would crowd around the jar, all of us captivated by the crumpled orange and black insect slowly unfurling its damp wings. Later that day, we would carry our precious cargo out to the field and set it free. Even so young, I was moved by the idea of this delicate creature, raised in the small world of our classroom, winging its way through the vast sky toward a far-distant destination it had never seen.
Then, one year, disaster struck: all the chrysalides turned brown and shriveled. It was a mystery. Jean asked us if we wanted her to tell us what had happened, but we shouted her down – we wanted to figure it out ourselves.
We investigated, asked questions, and pieced together clues until we realized that the culprit was another insect, a parasitoid, that had laid its own eggs in the caterpillars. That experience – of not just observing but actively solving a biological puzzle – cemented my love for science.
Describe your scientific journey and your current research focus
In my scientific journey, I have had the privilege to study animal behavior with a wide variety of taxa and all over the world. As an undergraduate at Kenyon College, USA, I translated my lifelong interest in the natural world into a degree in biology, with a semester spent in Kenya and Tanzania studying wildlife management and ecology with the School for Field Studies. After graduating, I put my research skill to use swabbing eastern spadefoot toads for fungal infection in the dunes of Cape Cod, MA, USA, and then studying the socioecology of wild Barbary macaques in Morocco. Thereafter, I moved Portland, OR, USA, where I pivoted and worked in science education and curriculum development with the Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly the Audubon Society of Portland) and the Oregon Zoo. Whether I was leading a geology-focused field trip into the Columbia River Gorge or presenting live program animals for elementary audiences, I loved my work connecting people to animals and the natural world.
As time went on, however, the call to return to biological research was too strong to ignore. In 2018, I returned to East Africa as an intern with the Elephants and Bees Project, where I worked with rural Kenyan communities alongside project staff to protect small farms from elephant crop-raids using beehive fences, as elephants are afraid of bees. It was there that I caught my fascination with honey bees, which ultimately led me to complete my PhD in Entomology at Virginia Tech.
Broadly, my current research focus is learning how to leverage discoveries in animal behavior to promote the livelihoods of both wildlife and people.
How would you explain the main findings of your paper to a member of the public?
We found that, when honey bees are exposed to a weedkiller called glyphosate, not only can it affect their food-gathering behavior but also it can affect the balance of certain important neurotransmitters in their brains. This is weird and unexpected! We've known for a long time that accidental exposure to insecticides can harm honey bees (after all, they are insects, and insecticides are formulated to kill insects). But we're talking about a weedkiller here, which is formulated to target unwanted plants. The biology of insects and plants is so different that we might expect weedkillers to be safe for insects. What we found adds to growing evidence that weedkillers can indeed affect the behavior and bodies of honey bees, too. With that in mind, we need to find out more about how weedkillers affect good insects so that we can make the best-informed choices about how to protect them.
What is the most important piece of equipment for your research, what does it do and what question did it help you address?
The most important piece of equipment in this research was the observation hive – a miniature bee hive with clear walls that can reveal everything that's happening on the comb surface. It's a simple, rectangular wooden structure, with room for about 5000 bees on the comb and covered by panels of clear Lexan. A tube connects the hive to the outdoors, so that the bees have free access to the landscape even while living in a honey bee high-rise of scientists' design. With observation hives, we can house bees comfortably indoors and observe behaviors directly on the comb, either while the bees go about their normal lives or when we are training them to treatment and control feeders, as we did. The next most important component of an observation hive is duct tape. Bees will wriggle their way out of even the smallest gaps between the clear panels and the wood, and a painstakingly applied layer of duct tape is the best way to prevent what we call a ‘bee leak’. (You do not want to arrive on the day of an experiment to find that the bees have been enjoying free access to your lab space as well as the outdoors.) Our research would not have been possible without observation hives.
Do you have a top tip for others just starting out at your career stage?
A successful graduate school experience is built on three pillars: (1) a research area that interests you; (2) a positive advisor–student relationship; and (3) a livable day to day (i.e. methods that don't crush your soul). Many start with the first, hope for the second and underestimate the third – but if you can line up all three, you will have the best chance at an amazing graduate school experience.
Finding the research direction that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning is absolutely part of the recipe for success. But interest alone cannot sustain you. Equally important is finding the right fit in an advisor, whose mentorship style matches what feels most supportive to you. There is no right or wrong way; it's just about getting the right fit. Finally, livable methods: the most often-underestimated driver of wellbeing. You could have the best advisor in the world and a research question that sets you on fire with curiosity, but if you must be in the lab every 4 h to check on your experiments for weeks or months at a time, you will be miserable regardless.
This is advice that I received as a prospective graduate student visiting Virginia Tech, sitting across a table from the PI who would become my advisor. She told me, ‘You can usually squeak by if you have two out of the three. But if you do your best to line up all three, you'll have a great time in graduate school’.
Laura McHenry's contact details: Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 160 Curtin Rd, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]
