CIEE

• It’s an observation as old as humans gathering around campfires: Light at night can draw an erratically circling crowd of insects.
• In art, music and literature, this spectacle is an enduring metaphor for dangerous but irresistible attractions.

Moths to a flame?

• An early notion was that the insects might be attracted to the heat of a flame.
• This was interesting, as some insects really are pyrophilic: They are attracted to fire and have evolved to take advantage of conditions in recently burned areas.
• But most insects around a light are not in this category, and cool lights attract them quite well.
• But if this were the explanation for the clusters around a light, you might expect them to bump straight into the source.

Turning their backs to the light

• Rather, a broad swath of insects consistently pointed their backs toward the lights.
• When their backs orient to a nearby light, the resulting bank loops them around the light, circling but rarely colliding.
• And even more compelling, when flying directly over a light, insects tended to flip upside down, again turning their backs to the light but then abruptly crashing.

Why have a dorsal light response?

• Although light at night can harm other animals – for example, by diverting migrating birds into urban areas – larger animals don’t seem to lose their vertical orientation.
• So why do insects, the oldest and most species-rich group of flyers, rely on a response that leaves them so vulnerable?
• Larger animals can sense gravity directly with sensory organs pulled by its acceleration, or any acceleration.

The growing problem of nighttime lighting

As new technology spreads, lights that pervade the night are proliferating faster then ever. With the introduction of cheap, bright, broad-spectrum LEDs, many areas, such as large cities, never see a dark night.

• Unable to secure food, easily spotted by predators and prone to exhaustion, many die before the morning comes.
• Restricting outdoor lighting to useful, targeted warm light, no brighter than necessary, and for no longer than necessary, can greatly improve the health of nocturnal ecosystems.

• Samuel Fabian receives funding from the European Research Council and a National Geographic Explorer Grant.
• Jamie Theobald receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

• CIEE First Year Abroad (FYA) is for students who want to study abroad their first semester or academic year of college.
• As a CIEE First Year Abroad student, participants enroll as a first-year college student and immediately begin to earn academic credit.
• CIEE's First Year Abroad program provides students with the option to enroll in a traditional semester of study or in CIEE's academic block program that allows for global comparative learning.
• "CIEE works with more than 400 high schools and 1,000 university partners annually to engage students in global learning experiences.

• SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine, June 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, three university student teams traveled to the 11th Annual CIEE Global Internship Conference (GIC) in Berlin, Germany for the finals of the inaugural GIC UNHCR Student Challenge where they presented their best ideas for addressing economic inclusion for people forced to flee their homes.
• Eligible members of the winning team will receive a scholarship for a 2024 CIEE summer global internship .
• The finals of the 2024 GIC Student Challenge will take place at the 12th Annual CIEE Global Internship Conference that will be held in London June 19 - 21, 2024; and the 2025 GIC Student Challenge will take place at the 13th Annual CIEE GIC that will be held in Singapore June 18-20, 2025.
• More information about next year's GIC Student Challenge will be available in Fall 2023.

• PORTLAND, Maine, April 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The African American Irish Diaspora Network (AAIDN) and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) have partnered to launch the AAIDN/CIEE Intern Scholars in Ireland Program for African American college students.
• Nearly forty percent of African Americans have Irish ancestry, according to some researchers , and African Americans share many other cultural, historic and social justice affinities with Ireland.
• They will serve as mentors for the next class of AAIDN Intern Scholars, thereby extending the African American Irish family network to future decedents of Africa and Ireland.
• To learn more about the AAIDN Intern Scholars in Ireland program, or to contribute to this effort, please contact Stacy Benjamin, CIEE's Director of Professional Development, at [email protected] .