Did you know that insects use scents to communicate with each other? In fact, they use perfumes to communicate. 

“Many of the scent molecules that insects make are familiar to us because we also find them in plants – think of the smell of citrus or the scent of flowers,” said Dorothea Tholl, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who initiated the project with funding from a National Science Foundation collaborative grant. “We have investigated the proteins that insects use to make scent. Think of them as nano-factories producing chemical messages on social media. Over millions of years, different insect species have fine-tuned these nano-factories to generate new chemical vocabulary and ultimately, specific chemical languages.” 

To break down this concept and make it more accessible to all audiences, Tholl and a team of Virginia Tech researchers partnered with the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) on a video installation that first debuted at the 2022 Virginia Tech Science Festival.

Fast forward two years, and now this video installation has become a permanent exhibition at the Science Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke. 

The work has been a team effort led by the Tholl Lab in collaboration with several faculty at Virginia Tech and across the country to contribute their findings and research.

Other collaborators include:

  • Paul O'Maille, program director for biocomplexity sciences at SRI International;
  • Alexandre Morozov, professor and director of the Center for Quantitative Biology at Rutgers University; 
  • Florian Schubot, associate professor of biological sciences at Virginia Tech;
  • Zarley Rebholz, a Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences at Virginia Tech;
  • Hailey Larose, postdoctoral research scientist at Virginia Tech; and
  • Nicholas Babineau, Ronny Ghaida, and Holly Riley, undergraduate students at Virginia Tech.  

"I love the way Dorothea and her team used outreach opportunities facilitated by the Center for Educational Networks and Impacts (CENI), including the Virginia Tech Science Festival and the Science Museum of Western Virginia, to iterate the educational content," said Phyllis Newbill, CENI's associate director of youth and community education.

Students attend the video installation at the Virginia Tech Sciences Festival.
This video installation was first presented in the Cube at the Virginia Tech Science Festival in 2022 and is now a permanent exhibition in the Science Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke. Photo courtesy of Dorothea Tholl.
The "What's That They [Say] Smell?" exhibit at the Science Museum of Western Virginia.
The "What Do You [Say] Smell" is a captivating exhibit at the Science Museum of Wester Virginia that promises to take visitors on a fascinating journey into the world of insect communication through scents. Photo courtesy of Phyllis Newbill.

David Franusich, multimedia designer at ICAT, led the student team who created the visuals and interactive pieces. "We worked with Dorothea and her lab to get to the essence of their research, and the best ways to communicate that to a young audience, said Franusich.

This illustrates the role interactive technology plays in simplifying and communicating a complex scientific idea.  

"I hope museum goers will come away with the understanding that world class research is happening in their backyard at Virginia Tech," said Newbill. "I also hope that they will see how molecular scale interactions connect with ecosystems."