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Category: general • multi-media
Posted on: March 12, 2010 9:01 AM, by coby
Not really apropos to climate change, but I saw this and just had to share.
Ever wondered what it would look like if you could actually see the entire network of tunnels that make up a large ant colony? Well, all it takes is 10 tons of concrete and a few months of labour.
Oh yeah, it also takes a willingness to destroy what you want to study. I have always had mixed feelings about that.
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Comments
We just have to hope we're not being studied by some 11th dimensional beings who might decide to fill the 3rd dimension with concrete...
Posted by: Dan Olner | March 12, 2010 10:36 AM
That really was interesting, Coby
Its *kind* of apropos . . . I wonder if at any point during the concrete insertion that the majority of engineering ants arrived at a consensus that this was an extinction-level event, but a few "skeptics" insisted the models were uncertain and not to worry. The major difference is these poor bastards were gonners anyway--sacrificed for the glory of science. We still have a choice.
Posted by: skip | March 12, 2010 11:25 AM
You posted a low grade 'cloner vid' from the original YT poster's account. The "original" is much better quality (and has half the hits, LOL).
http://www.youtube.com/user/antworkshop#p/a/u/1/g7VhvoMFn34
Posted by: Claude | March 13, 2010 11:00 PM
I seem to recall that Discover magazine carried a piece quite a few years ago, about a researcher who looked for abandoned colonies, then filled them with a metal alloy to get something similar.
Posted by: psweet | March 14, 2010 10:30 AM