King of sting - the scientist who reviews the stings of insects

Justin Schmidt sampled the stinging power of ants, bees and wasps. His reviews - from 'blinding, fierce' to 'hot and smoky' - have now been published in their entirety

Ever wondered what it's like to be stung by an artistic wasp? (This being an actual insect species of the order Hymenoptera, as opposed to a Turner-nominated waspish type with a vendetta.) "Pure, then messy, then corrosive," according to entomologist Justin Schmidt, otherwise known as the King of Sting. "Love and marriage followed by divorce." Or what about something with a little more bite? Like the sting of the fierce black polybia wasp, which apparently feels like "a ritual gone wrong, Satanic. The gas lamp in the old church explodes in your face when you light it."

Now that summer is sort of here, and wasps are blithely buzzing around the nation's Coke cans (or San Pellegrino, if you want to be posh about your pop), check out the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, the exquisite life's work (and pain) of a biologist at Southwest Biological Institute and the University of Arizona who appears to be a cross between Steve Irwin and Jilly Goolden. As in he likes to stick his hand into a hornet's nest and then sample the venom as though as it were a glass of classic vintage barolo.