A museum’s uneasy alliance between scientists and flesh-eating beetles

The ironic name of the ‘library of life’ at The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley in California won’t be lost on the team of scientists who work there, cataloguing and preserving animal specimens for generations to come. Apart from scientists, the only living things you’ll find in the library are dermestid beetles that, since 1924, have helped researchers strip thousands of animal carcasses to the bone.