Down on the Farm
Ants in space? It’s true! In preparation for the May 2000 space shuttle mission scientists at NASA tackled the question of how to conduct studies on the development of animal life (specifically ants) in zero gravity. The technology that resulted was a gel that replaced soil in standard ant habitats with special properties ensuring it did not compress and crush the ants by the immense g forces during take off. The amazing nontoxic gel is both a home and food for ants and its transparency makes it easy to watch the ants digging their network of tunnels. These advanced versions of the classic ‘ant farm’ were dubbed antiquariums and traveled with the astronauts as they circumnavigated the earth. (Thanks to Jana Bouc for the ant farm illustration.)
You can find four configurations of the Antiquarium at the Science Toy Store, priced from $14.99 to $24.99. (Thanks to deur_h for the image below.)
The educational site AntColonies.net is stocked more ant info than you can imagine, exploring everything from how ants communicate to how they war with one another. They also have an ‘Antcam‘ allowing you to watch an Antiquarium colony of ants in real time!
The clear gel has allowed people to take great photos of their Antiquarium ants in action, like the one by Stephanie Lamphere below. Search ‘ant farm’ on Flickr and check out all of the ant activity!
