Magneto-ants pump iron

Magneto-ants pump iron

www.the-scientist.com

Researchers have discovered the basis for the magnetic personalities of migratory ants. These social insects integrate magnetic soil nanoparticles into their antennae to help them navigate the forests of South America, according to a study published online today (May 20) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

...some ant species map-read by responding to geomagnetic forces.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Isn't life wonderful? And mysterious?

It's truly amazing how some things work.

Most ants communicate through pheromones and other chemical signals to find their way. But some ant species map-read by responding to geomagnetic forces. ...the ants collect ultra-fine-grained iron oxide and aluminum silicate crystals from the soil and incorporate them into three main joints of their antennae.

Very cool, I think.

I wonder how many other species collect magnetized nano-particles from the soil to use for navigation. I also wonder what technologies or human activities might muck up the system.


www.the-scientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Scientists have known for a while that insects and about 50 species of animals use the earth's magnetic field to navigate. For a while, the assumption was that the mechanism was always the same. But no.

Seems there are many paths to the same place...

About 50 species of animals are known to use the direction of Earth's magnetic field to help them find their way, but scientists have been mystified as to how they could do it because the field seems to be too weak to have an effect on the nervous system.

...over the past few decades, scientists have found that animals ranging from birds and mammals to sea turtles and even insects can use the Earth's magnetic field either as a compass to orientate themselves in a particular direction, or as a map to help them determine their location.

Revealed: secret of how birds navigate during migration. URL

- sofi

What a great find!!

I have long considered magnetism to be one of the secrets of the universe and I think as we move forward as a civilization that we are going to learn more about how to manipulate it for progress.

Fascinating!!

A relevant note may be that the ants are able to use this on such a small scale. I wonder how much there behaviour is influenced by this fact...

i got a cold chill reading that, ants scare me a little - ever since reading some HG Wells short where giant ants take over.

The thing with 'em is they're so freakishly clever, they found that the heat difference between the decaying food in the stores and the near by hatchery was causing a pressure imbalance which draws in fresh air and pushes out stale air - the ants had created a highly advanced air con system!

The have a society so complex that we still don't understand a tenth of how they operate, they do allot of things similar to us, for instance they farm smaller animals (aphids) much like we farm dairy cows and they grow fungus spores on leaves they've collected much like we plant and reap corn.


Also for all we know we could be only scratching the surface of ant culture, some ant colonies are far too deep for us to know how far down they go, maybe even deeper than our DUMBS? For all we know ultra complex royal courts could exist deep-deep under our feet - complex thought might be taking place, a whole new intelligent race might well exist on earth already! Maybe they're just pushing into an iron age or a 'cultural awakening' as happened around 16,000 years ago. Maybe soon we'll start seeing ant art work carved into tree roots, ants riding tame cockroaches dressed in little cowboy hats.

While modern science does say an ants brain is too small to hold rational thought process like ours do, we also know that it's possible to have remote control communication (such as we are now or a model boat might steer by) complex structured hive minds (such as the institute of science, CoFR, etc) and of course it's always open to new ideas - maybe after global warming kills us all the ants in their dumbs wills outlast even the rats to be the next sentient beings to evolve on the earth.

reply to post by soficrow


Great article

Mother nature is such an incredibly complex and caring organism that navigates co confidently among the staggering physical laws of the universe. How ants coordinate and execute complex maneuvers as though by the unison of a single organism has always amazed me. That they have magnetic guidance too is... just pretty awesome.

I wonder how they deal with alternately polarised iron in the differing layers of rock created during the cycles of Earth's electromagnetic shifts

Aren't humans among those 50 species?
A bit of magnetite, just behind the nose?
Pigeons for sure.