There once was a man who swallowed some ants. ‘Twas done with intent, not merely from chance. The ants were alive, But did not survive. The research was done without government grants. The man was and is Volker Sommer, [pictured here] professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London. He and colleagues Oliver Allon and Alejandra Pascual-Garrido travelled […]
Tag: ants
The Chemistry Of Exploding Ants: Oh, Oh
A natural exclamation, to a person upon first encountering the theme of the study “The Chemistry Of Exploding Ants”, might be “Oh-Oh!” That is in fact part of the chemical story, as illustrated in the figure below, which is reproduced from the study. “The Chemistry Of Exploding Ants, Camponotus SPP. (cylindricus COMPLEX),” T.H. JONES, D.A. […]
Colored ants, in parts
The Daily Mail (a news source that inspires literary scholars to speak whimsically about the concept of the “unreliable narrator“) features a story about some colorful photos [one of which is reproduced here]. The story says: Father of three Mohamed Babu set up the photographs after his wife, Shameem, showed him some ants had turned […]
Polyethism, not polytheism, in ants
No, not polytheism. Polyethism. See the study: “Polyethism in a colony of artificial ants“, Chris Marriott, Carlos Gershenson, arXiv:1104.3152v1, April 15, 2011. The authors are at IIMAS, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico. (Thanks to investigator Ralph Egan for bringing this to our attention.)