Ants... In... Space

Ant writes "The Fowler students picked an experiment with ants, rather than plants, because they wanted to see some activity in space. They have been following the ants' progress on the web. The students and their teachers also have learned that sometimes the best thought-out hypothesis does not pan out in reality. 'We predicted that the ants would tunnel a lot slower in microgravity, but we're finding out they're moving a lot faster,' said Golash. The students have a control group of ants at their school, living in a similar environment except with gravity. After the shuttle returns from its scheduled 16-day flight in early February, the young scientists will have 30 days to put together a preliminary report. Their "Ants in Space" experiment was sponsored by SPACEHAB, an aerospace company that has worked with NASA for many years to design and build hardware for space experiments."

Comments

Hrm...

[Daleks]

The ending to Ender's Game came to mind when I read this. Creepy.

Questions about ants

[Entropy248]

I wonder if it would even be possible for an ant to build a hive in low or no gravity situations. Maybe someone who passed physics can tell me if I'm wrong. I thought that if an ant pushed a stone up, it would keep going until it hit another stone, which would receive the first's momentum, absorb a little bit and pass it on, making all of the tunnels above what you just dug collapse upward.

It would really suck if those ants got loose into the shuttle! Though they might find it to be a shocking experience to meet the electrical system (*cheap rim shot*)

I bet that guy from *NSync is really pissed now that even the lowly ant has beaten him out.

Uhhh... It's really late & I'm drunk.
In Soviet Russia, ants launch you into space.
Profit.
==
And for my next trick, I will disappear.

Re:Questions about ants

[EvilTwinSkippy]

You have to remember that at extremely small scales, different physical forces come into play.

In this case, electrical charge. The rocks and pebbles "stick" to each other as a result. Even under the effects of Earth's gravity, this stickyness factor is a greater force than weight.

If you remember, an aerospace engineer is credited with saying that bumblebees can't fly. (It's actually a misquote.) At that scale, air resistance is a greater influence than weight. They are constantly falling, but their terminal velocity is so rediculously slow that their puny little wings can push them up at a greater rate. Kind of like a blimb with a negative bouyancy.

Re:what will we learn from this?

[sixide]

No knowledge is bad knowledge. Perhaps ants have an optimal body structure for 0g tunneling? Could be useful to know for asteroid mining operations, perhaps. Then again, it could just be useless.

Ants?

[Seehund]

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?

Re:Ants?

[nentwined]

I have to say, I think the israeli chemical garden (as scary as that title may be) is by FAR the best thought out of the bunch. Most of them are "gee, let's see if this creature turns out or acts any different, just because, well, they might". The chemical garden is nifty in that it actually gives scientific explanations as to what might change, and why -- multiple hypotheses, even. la la la.

Re:Ants?

[BFaucet]

I think the fish experiment could offer quite a lot of insight into how fish judge direction. Also I'm wondering if the fish will learn to use their air bladders when they get back to earth.

The ants live in "Jello" instead of sand / dirt

[bleeeeck]

From the "special ant habitat" pop up link on the page at http://www.starsacademy.com/sts107/experiments/ant s_top.htm:

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.

Re:Bad Science

[Floody]

The only point of the shuttle in actual perfect free fall (and thus zero-G) is the exact center of gravity. All other points experience tidal forces, which, while minute, are measurable and may (or may not) affect experiments.

Thus the term "microgravity." It's not bad science at all, you just don't know what you are talking about.

Re:So...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. You got like a Nostradamus thing going on there.