Sciences Fact-check publié le

✅ Etude scientifique menée par Jo Nagai, 10 ans, sur les papillons.

✅ Vrai

Le post

Jo Nagai was raising swallowtail butterflies at his home in Kobe, Japan, when he noticed something interesting - the ones he had looked after as caterpillars seemed to recognise him. Wild butterflies fled, but his didn't. In second grade, he wrote a four-page letter to Dr. Martha Weiss, an entomologist at Georgetown University who had studied whether moths could retain memories through metamorphosis. He asked if she could help him design a version of her experiment for butterflies. She said yes. Using a muscle therapy device, Jo trained caterpillars to associate the scent of lavender with a mild vibration. When the caterpillars became butterflies, 70% of them still avoided the lavender. Their brains had been completely rebuilt during metamorphosis. The memory survived anyway. Then he bred them. The offspring, which had never been trained, also avoided lavender. So did their grandchildren. Without ever experiencing the vibration, two generations of butterflies inherited an aversion to a scent their grandmother had been taught to fear. Jo documented it all in a 33-page research paper and presented his findings at the International Congress of Entomology in Kobe in 2024, he was 10. A second-grader wrote a letter to a Georgetown professor, and together they found evidence that butterflies can pass memories down through generations 💛 #Connected #ConnectedCoach #Constellations #GenerationalMemories #NatureScience
Image du post LinkedIn vérifié

Le fact-check

✅ True, with just a bit of fictionalisation The story is all over the internet, but we prefer the version told by Dr Martha Weiss herself, in a webinar in 2025, fully available online. https://tinyurl.com/bddbtxtr Dr Weiss has published articles on insect's memory, which caught the attention of Jo Nagai, working on caterpillars for his school science project. https://commonhome.georgetown.edu/issues/spring-2022/a-flutter-of-memory/ After he wrote to her, they exchanged remotely for 3 years, and he conducted experiments with her guidance. She presents him as her co-author. https://tinyurl.com/4wu5ucsy They met at the ICE (International Congress of Entomology) in 2024, where he presented his research, among about twenty other school students, as part of the congress was dedicated to them. https://pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/ice2024/session/42_1196-213

Historique

5 étapes
16 juil. 2026 • 10:06

Post Reçu

16 juil. 2026 • 18:56

En traitement

16 juil. 2026 • 19:29

Fact-check terminé

17 juil. 2026 • 07:41

Fact-check relu

17 juil. 2026 • 08:15

Publication

✅ True, with just a bit of fictionalisation The story is all over the internet, but we prefer the version told by Dr Martha Weiss herself, in a webinar in 2025, fully available online. https://tinyurl.com/bddbtxtr Dr Weiss has published articles on insect's memory, which caught the attention of Jo Nagai, working on caterpillars for his school science project. https://commonhome.georgetown.edu/issues/spring-2022/a-flutter-of-memory/ After he wrote to her, they exchanged remotely for 3 years, and he conducted experiments with her guidance. She presents him as her co-author. https://tinyurl.com/4wu5ucsy They met at the ICE (International Congress of Entomology) in 2024, where he presented his research, among about twenty other school students, as part of the congress was dedicated to them. https://pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/ice2024/session/42_1196-213

Vous avez une question, une remarque ou une suggestion ? Contactez-nous, nous vous répondrons au plus vite !

Nous contacter
Posez votre question à VeraVera