LOCKWOOD EXPLORES BUG WARS: The ancient plagues against the Egyptians chronicled in the Bible’s Book of Exodus is being examined in a biological sense by University of Wyoming professor Jeff Lockwood, who explores this in Swarm Wars, a book he’s writing about entomological warfare. A section examines Moses turning the Nile River into blood and the resulting plagues of frogs, gnats, flies, livestock diseases, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and deaths of the first born set against an entomological framework. "What's interesting about Exodus is the sequence," Lockwood said. "There is as yet no ecological rationale to fully explain how the events followed one another; however, what happened in Exodus is reflected in the Book of Psalms and an Egyptian papyrus. So, it appears something did happen." This caught the attention of National Geographic, which recently sent a crew to film Lockwood for its Mysteries of the Bible series. The crew also used College of Agriculture and the USDA Agricultural Research Service facilities to film biting midges and stable flies, possibly part of the catastrophic menagerie loosed upon Egypt. Lockwood is working on his first draft of Swarm Wars and plans to complete it in 2006.

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:09 PM