Ants have always amazed me! The way the whole colony acts just like a single organism, communicating with each other like the cells of some giant alien brain.
A great way to appreciate these wonderful creatures is to keep them in an ant farm, that way the ants can be observed daily as they selflessly toil and labor for the good of the colony. Ant farms contain a mixture of sand and soil for the ants to nest in and are made from two panes of glass or transparent plastic in a narrow frame, therefore maximizing the amount of underground tunnels visible through the sides. However visibility is still poor as the tunnels need to be right against the sides of the farm to be seen. Wouldn't it be great if there was some sort of transparent medium for the ants to tunnel in?
Enter NASA, and an experiment to see how tunneling insects behave in zero gravity
It is known that animals on earth know which way is up and which way is down by feeling the effects of gravity. Scientists wanted to observe how ants behaved and tunneled in zero gravity, so specially developed ant farms, along with all the other stuff astronauts take with them into space, were loaded onto space shuttle S.T.S. 107 5.2000 in 2003.
It would not have been possible to use a soil medium for the ant habitats as the soil would not pack together well enough for tunneling, and would collapse with the g force on takeoff and landing. So the egg heads at NASA developed a transparent gel for the ants to tunnel in. In this medium the ants could be easily observed and the tunnels would not collapse under the forces experienced on the journeys to and from space. As an added bonus the ants could eat the gel which provided them with all the nutrients they needed and kept them hydrated on the journey.
These space aged ant farms are now available for the public, and are a great addition to the ever growing number of quality educational Science toys available in the UK.
The author of this article has chosen to make this article available with free reprint rights. Click here to copy this article.
Good article. My goodness what we learn just from reading SearchWarp! Who would have thought? However, I like earthworms because they do such good in my gardens. Would be neat to see something similar with the worms as well.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
