Posted on Oct. 31: McMaster bugs out on Discovery
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Marvin_Gunderman.jpg” caption=”Marvin Gunderman”]Strange things happen at the Auchmar estate on Hamilton's mountain brow. For one thing, mayflies bite people and age them a lot faster than humanly possible.
McMaster's Marvin Gunderman can be held partly accountable for the creepy things that take place at the 150-year-old Gothic-style estate. After all, it's this entomologist that put the insects there in the first place.
The technical co-ordinator, curator of entomology and insect taxonomist in McMaster's Department of Biology, supplied the set of Discovery Channel's new program Strange Days at Blake Holsey High with the mayflies that were digitized for use in episode 5. In this episode, a student catches a mayfly, known for its short lifespan, and when the bug bites him, his genetic code is altered and he ages rapidly.
“A special crew took digital images of the insects spread on a Petrie plate and they manipulated those images to make a prototype creature,” Gunderman explains. “What they wanted to get across was that aging and life spans are both relative.”
The show will air Nov. 23 on Discovery Kids on NBC Saturday mornings. The half-hour action series is filmed on location in Hamilton at the Auchmar estate, once a monastery. The show is set at a boarding school called Blake Holsey High, nicknamed Black Hole High because of the bizarre occurrences that take place there.
The episode probably won't spook Gunderman. “As a kid I loved insects,” he says. “I always had spider collections and all of my science projects in high school were on insects.”
He enrolled at McMaster and took every entomology and environmental course he could, graduating with a master's degree in science in 1989. He now co-ordinates the workflow of 12 technical staff members in biology and teaches the insect taxonomy field course and guest lectures in undergraduate courses and area public schools.
Gunderman hopes shows like Strange Days at Blake Holsey High will help dispel fears of insects. “I think it's great because a lot of them do a good job at educating and dispelling myths, but most of it is what I call Hollywood schlock'. It's actually doing more harm than good. Hollywood often portrays insects as man-eating creatures, which stalk and attack man.”
McMaster's involvement in the film industry is great publicity, Gunderman says. “It is great public relations for the University to have our name out there and for people to see that McMaster is being used for educational films. Hopefully, it will lead to more requests for our services in the future.”
Photo caption: Entomologist Marvin Gunderman displays a fish fly nymph in the Biology Insect Collection Room in the Life Sciences Building. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay
