Slashdot Mirror

The students doing experiments from STARS. My harvester ants experiment thread and everyone's reactions. Everything was going so well... :(

The tunneling medium is an agar-based gel. Numerous tests were performed with other types of media such as sand, soil, and vermiculite. With all of these media the tunnels risk collapse due to the vibration of landing, and tend to be prone to fungal infection if an ant dies within the habitat, or from food molding. The gel was chosen since it is firm enough to maintain integrity during launch/landing and provides fungus suppression through inhibitors in the gel. The colored gel will also make it easier to see the ants in the video.

The ants tunnel through the gel just as they tunnel through sand. Workers bite off pieces and carry them out of the tunnel. A starter tunnel is provided to help the ants to commence tunneling once inserted into the habitat. The agar gel contains sucrose to stimulate the ants to eat it. Amino acids, vitamins and minerals are added to the gel to provide an appropriate diet for the ants. As the gel largely consists of water, the ants also receive all their water as they eat.

The gel provides disease control by suppressing fungal and mold growth -- the primary cause of death in captive colonies. As the animals tunnel through the medium and eat it, the mold inhibitor contained in the gel is released and eradicates mold and fungal spores. This also helps prevent infection in healthy ants from the decomposition of ants that have died in the habitat.

Not only is this the second time /. is reporting the ants story here, but it's again the sole experiment being discussed here, altough there are quite a lot other experiments up in space with the current sts flight. Australia sent in some spiders, Chinese students got a silkworm up, japan has fishes and liechtenstein sent up spice bees. You can find similar reports on these animals progress here: http://www.starsacademy.com/sts107/experiments/exp eriments.htm

Are the effects of space travel and microgravity on ants inherently more interesting for Nerds than the same effects on the web weaving of spiders, or cocoon spinning of silkworms, or the growth of crystalline filaments, or the eggs, development and taxis of Medaka fish, or the tunneling habits of carpenter bees?

Kids from 6 countries participate with 6 projects in this. WTF is so special with ants that hasn't been done before? Is it because "Fowler Highschool" is more easily pronounced than "Liechtenstein Gymnasium" for some people, or what?

Are the effects of space travel and microgravity on ants inherently more interesting for Nerds than the same effects on the web weaving of spiders, or cocoon spinning of silkworms, or the growth of crystalline filaments, or the eggs, development and taxis of Medaka fish, or the tunneling habits of carpenter bees?

Kids from 6 countries participate with 6 projects in this. WTF is so special with ants that hasn't been done before? Is it because "Fowler Highschool" is more easily pronounced than "Liechtenstein Gymnasium" for some people, or what?

Are the effects of space travel and microgravity on ants inherently more interesting for Nerds than the same effects on the web weaving of spiders, or cocoon spinning of silkworms, or the growth of crystalline filaments, or the eggs, development and taxis of Medaka fish, or the tunneling habits of carpenter bees?

Kids from 6 countries participate with 6 projects in this. WTF is so special with ants that hasn't been done before? Is it because "Fowler Highschool" is more easily pronounced than "Liechtenstein Gymnasium" for some people, or what?

Are the effects of space travel and microgravity on ants inherently more interesting for Nerds than the same effects on the web weaving of spiders, or cocoon spinning of silkworms, or the growth of crystalline filaments, or the eggs, development and taxis of Medaka fish, or the tunneling habits of carpenter bees?

Kids from 6 countries participate with 6 projects in this. WTF is so special with ants that hasn't been done before? Is it because "Fowler Highschool" is more easily pronounced than "Liechtenstein Gymnasium" for some people, or what?

Are the effects of space travel and microgravity on ants inherently more interesting for Nerds than the same effects on the web weaving of spiders, or cocoon spinning of silkworms, or the growth of crystalline filaments, or the eggs, development and taxis of Medaka fish, or the tunneling habits of carpenter bees?

Kids from 6 countries participate with 6 projects in this. WTF is so special with ants that hasn't been done before? Is it because "Fowler Highschool" is more easily pronounced than "Liechtenstein Gymnasium" for some people, or what?

Are the effects of space travel and microgravity on ants inherently more interesting for Nerds than the same effects on the web weaving of spiders, or cocoon spinning of silkworms, or the growth of crystalline filaments, or the eggs, development and taxis of Medaka fish, or the tunneling habits of carpenter bees?

Kids from 6 countries participate with 6 projects in this. WTF is so special with ants that hasn't been done before? Is it because "Fowler Highschool" is more easily pronounced than "Liechtenstein Gymnasium" for some people, or what?

I remember an early student-designed experiment (early 80's?) involving bees; the bees did pretty well I think. I see they're sending spice bees (carpenter bees) on STS-107, Columbia. Here is the official NASA description.

I'm sure this has been thought of, but what if the bees escape? The females do sting. So there would be some interesting footage of astronauts chasing and avoiding a swarm of weightless, disoriented, pissed, and space sick bees. Could be interesting. Bug spray would be right out as an option. :) I wonder if NASA classes live bees as a hazardous cargo.