Unlike the rest of humanity, Rebeca Rosengaus would rather not get rid of termites. That’s because, scientifically, they’re so interesting.

In fact, the assistant biology professor, who studies the evolution of social behavior among animals, keeps thousands of termites in her Mugar lab, all safely tucked into plastic tubs or Petri dishes. She makes sure they’re well supplied with their food of choice—rotting wood.

As the little critters scurry about, munching happily, Rosengaus examines the characteristics that keep them so well-equipped for survival, even in disease-ridden conditions that would fell other species. Termites, it turns out, have a remarkable ability to resist pathogens and parasites. This may be largely due to their close-knit living conditions.

“If you were in a movie theater, and someone next to you was coughing his lungs out,” Rosengaus explains, “chances are you and the other people there would get sick, because of the enclosed environment. But my research has shown that with termites, it’s the opposite.”

Termites use a variety of social methods to ward off disease and parasites, says Rosengaus. For example, when they lick and groom each other, the action may be removing fungi from their bodies, and it’s possible their salivary glands are producing antibiotic secretions.

It even appears that sick termites try to warn healthy termites to stay away from them. Almost immediately after being exposed to a high dose of fungus, a termite, Rosengaus says, will “start shaking like crazy,” even though it’s not sick yet, and will keep shaking for several days, until it dies. Experiments have shown that, if nestmates perceive the vibration, they’ll steer clear of the infected bug.

Termites also line their galleries with feces, which they bury their dead under. “It’s counterintuitive,” says Rosengaus. “Most animals poop outside their nest.” But she’s found the feces has antibacterial properties that help ward off disease. In addition, termites have underbelly glands that secrete an antifungal chemical. And some can squirt a gluelike substance out of their heads, which entangles ants and other predators.

“These little things can do so much,” says Rosengaus. “They have evolved a multilayered strategy that allows them to survive. Ecologically speaking, they are tremendously important.”

Money for nothing

Given the current headlines about skyrocketing drug costs, you wouldn’t expect pharmaceutical companies to willingly drop their prices. But that’s just what associate philosophy professor Patricia Illingworth thinks they ought to do, especially for developing countries that can’t afford drugs to combat such diseases as HIV and tuberculosis.

Drug companies, says Illingworth, should do more than make money; they should consider their moral responsibility to improve society.

Though it sounds radical, Illingworth thinks the idea is gaining currency. “Maybe this nation could develop a commitment to the production of social capital,” she says.

“Social capital” refers to the value of people, not goods. If pharmaceutical companies dropped drug prices for people in need, the thinking goes, those people could have better, more productive lives. And society as a whole would benefit.

Illingworth has coauthored a paper with University of Toronto assistant professor Jillian Clare Cohen that offers—and justifies—several proposals for improving the poor’s access to essential medicines while maintaining drug companies’ intellectual property rights.

“It is worth noting,” Illingworth and Clare Cohen write in their paper, “that the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry in the U.S.” Drug companies, they argue, could relieve much “pain, suffering, loss, and unnecessary death” if they took into account the moral good along with their shareholders’ return.

Friendly persuasion

We value our personal relationships for the companionship, support, and acceptance they provide. But, according to assistant communications professor Walter Carl, relationships play perhaps a greater role than we realize. Our trust in our friends, he says, gives them a unique ability to influence or persuade us.

Businesses and other organizations routinely take advantage of this function, notes Carl. For example, public-health ads aimed at curbing teen smoking often feature young people decrying tobacco’s ills, the goal being peer-to-peer communication.

Companies exploit relational connections in other ways. Organizations like Amway and Mary Kay Cosmetics use “word-of-mouth” marketing, tapping into people’s social networks to build sales. Cell phone companies looking to promote a new product hire actors to pretend to be tourists in Times Square who “casually” show passersby their new picture-taking phone. The idea is that people find an average person with whom they strike up a conversation more believable than an ad that touts a product’s benefits.

“You can’t understand persuasion and influence without understanding the importance of people’s everyday conversations and their position within networks of people they care about,” says Carl. “People use those relationships to sound out ideas and confirm their ways of looking at the world. Personal relationships are much more powerful than we give them credit for.”