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05-24-2006, 01:46 PM | #1 | |
Radical Centrist
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
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5/24/2006: Ant tunnels
Picked up by Boing Boing, suggested by multiple users, posted by glatt, and "nominated" for IotD in another Cellar thread. How can you tell what ants are doing, when they build their nest? An ant farm shows it to you... as if the ants only had a little rectangle to build in, and if they only had to build it in two dimensions. Don't limit your ants! This clever method of "excavating" ant tunnels is described thusly: Quote:
Many more images are available at the gallery at the link above. |
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05-24-2006, 01:49 PM | #2 |
still says videotape
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 26,813
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Can you see all the little carcasses up close or are they sealed in their rubbery grave?
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05-24-2006, 01:53 PM | #3 |
Wearing her bitch boots
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Floriduh
Posts: 1,181
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Cool! Their little tunnels even have switchbacks.
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05-24-2006, 01:54 PM | #4 |
™
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 27,717
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Reading the link, they mention different materials they had tried, including molten aluminum. They had a problem with their socks catching on fire when standing in the bottom of a two meter deep pit, trying to pour the molten metal down into the final portion of the tunnel system. Crazy scientists! I love 'em.
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05-24-2006, 02:14 PM | #5 |
(This space left intentionally UN-blank.)
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Albuquerque
Posts: 604
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kinda looks like a houseplant coated in something.
wonder how long it'll be before the scientists start to theorize about what each chamber was for. |
05-24-2006, 02:23 PM | #6 | |
I think this line's mostly filler.
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DC
Posts: 13,575
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Quote:
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_________________ |...............| We live in the nick of times. | Len 17, Wid 3 | |_______________| [pics] |
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05-24-2006, 02:36 PM | #7 |
still says videotape
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 26,813
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So, how am I supposed to get the insect rightists fired up?
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If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis |
05-24-2006, 02:43 PM | #8 |
Guest
Posts: n/a
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I want one of these recast in aluminum so bad!
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05-24-2006, 03:06 PM | #9 |
A serene breakdown
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Northern NJ, USA
Posts: 266
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I'd looked the article up when I saw it on Boingboing. I think they mentioned that they would recapture the ants before making the cast, because I was wondering about that part too.
I liked the part at the end where they made an artificial nest, put ants in the chambers, and dug it up some time later (thus finding out that the young ants would go to the bottom and the older ones went to the top). Lots of fun was had by all, I am sure. |
05-24-2006, 03:39 PM | #10 |
Blatantly Homosapien
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 6,200
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A painstaking process to say the least. I'd like to have one.
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05-24-2006, 03:48 PM | #11 |
Slattern of the Swail
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 15,654
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Is that some kind of deep-fried something or other?
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In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic. "Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her. —James Barrie Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum |
05-24-2006, 03:55 PM | #12 | |
Snowflake
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
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Quote:
How did you know?
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****************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio |
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05-24-2006, 03:57 PM | #13 |
Guest
Posts: n/a
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How long before the first apt. complex or hotel reproduction?
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05-24-2006, 04:11 PM | #14 |
The Sheriff of Nothingland
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Melbourne, Aus
Posts: 1,794
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imagine being an ant at the bottom and being told someone has some mad sugar at the bottom of one of the other tunnels. would you bother?
id be scared by ants if there were connecting tunnels. i mean really scared. it would show an intelligence like no other considering their size. i mean looking at that is amazing enough.
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something we both can enjoy?? |
05-24-2006, 04:28 PM | #15 | |
Snowflake
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
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Quote:
__________________
****************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio |
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