Excavation an giant Ant Hill with 10 tonnes of concrete [Video]

I'm not sure that the ants would be particularly happy about this research project but the final result is really quite amazing.

Basically, researchers pump concrete into a giant ant hill. It takes a little bit longer than they expect (3 days to be precise) and they get through 10 tonnes of concrete.

Then they leave the concrete to set and three weeks later start excavating the site to revile what the inside of the colony looks like. The result is an intricate structure, equivalent in labour to humans building the Great Wall of China.

Worth a watch and a great resource to support the teaching of science. 

Via: Boing Boing

 

Comments

[Joe Moretti]

That is truly amazing stuff... as you say I wonder what the ant perspective was on this -

[Praveena]

This is not such a happy experiment, they could have adopted a little sophistication means to know what the structures looked like instead of pouring concrete and killing all the ants.

[Christine]

Amazing! On a much smaller scale, for many years marine biologists at Millport have been using resin casts to look at burrow structure in mud dwellers such as Nephrops (scampi). Divers take down buckets of resin and pour it into the burrows. It might not seem very kind but these are commercially fished species and resin casting is a lot less damaging to the crustacea than a trawl. I think the Royal Scottish Museum now holds Millport's collection of resin casts. Have jsut googled unsuccessfully for pictures.

[michael]

I agree. Although I find it very fascinating, I too am disturbed that the ants were killed and their city destroyed. There must be another way to observe, study and monitor. If you can run a camera through a human artery, why not through an ant colony?