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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."

2 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. NASA is a waste of money by Mmmrky · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I'm all for space exploration. Real space exploration. The problem is that NASA can't get the funding for all the good stuff so they resort to wasting money to justify their own existence. Seriously folks it's a complete and total waste.

    International Space Station? Completely useless, and expensive at that. Come to think of it, NASA doesn't do anything cheap (not that I necessarily want to be on a cheap space shuttle).

    NASA needs to stop wasting money on crappy little projects and ant-colonies and do something worthwhile. Then maybe it gets a bit more funding.

  2. Houston, We Have A Problem... by redtail1 · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Last audio clip recorded near ant experiment:

    - Protect the Queen! - Which one's the Queen? - I'm the Queen. - No you're not. - Freedom! - Horrible, horrible freedom!