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ABSTRACT Gut symbionts influence the physiology and behavior of their host, but the extent to which these effects scale to social behaviors is an emerging area of research. The use of the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) as a model enables researchers to investigate the gut microbiome and behavior at several levels of social organization. Insight into gut microbial effects at the societal level is critical for our understanding of how involved microbial symbionts are in host biology. In this Commentary, we discuss recent findings in honeybee gut microbiome research and synthesize these with knowledge of the physiology and behavior of other model organisms to hypothesize how host–microbe interactions at the individual level could shape societal dynamics and evolution. 

There is a rapidly growing demand for individuals in cybersecurity and a deficit of persons able to fill those roles. To help meet this need, students not majoring in computing can be utilized to fulfill this demand by exposing them to date mining, cybersecurity practices, and applications of these concepts in the field. This paper presents findings from a twenty-one-week program in which minority undergraduate college students all members of the Reserve Officer Training Coprs (ROTC), were taught computer programming, natural language processing, data visualization, and computer vision fundamentals. Midshipmen and cadets used their newly gained knowledge, teamwork, planning, and communication skills to develop a threat dectection prototype using publicly available social media data. Resuls from pre and post python assessments and post-program interviews that recorded participant attitudes and sefl-efficacy are reported to highlight the programs' effectiveness.