The Seven-Year Science Fair, or Fifty Shades of Green: True bugs, new species, and why I'm not smarter than a fifth grader.

With 90% of the world's 8 million or so insect species still undiscovered, the age of exploration is far from over. We now have the technological tools to more accurately document that biodiversity through a process called integrative taxonomy. Oceanic islands are not only among the world's prettiest and most fragile ecosystems, they are also hives of undiscovered insect biodiversity. In my Ph.D., also known as the world's longest science fair (seven years for this guy!), I discovered 23 new species of plant bugs from the islands of Tahiti. I'll talk about how I decided on what to call a species (no simple task; "species" is a pretty loaded term), why these species are important, and our best educated guesses about how new species formed. While in Tahiti, I also taught fifth-grade science for a year--I'll discuss how natural history got my kids fired up and helped them learn in the process, and how they taught me more about myself than I ever expected.