Professor Walter Tschinkel makes a Molten cast of an Ant Colony

The professor's life long fascination with ants has lead him down the path to ant genocide, but all in the name of science. He melts aluminum and pours the molten hot metal down into the ant colony. Not long after the digging begins to reveal a 3D model of the ant colony. Cool stuff and a must see.

RIP ants

Yay 3D ant colony

That is pretty spectacular! I never would have thought that ant colonies would have so much intricacy within them. They mentioned that different ant species have different techniques, which also really piqued my interest. Mostly with that incredibly long, narrow cast! It looked like it was several feet down.

Seeing the colony like that also reminded me of an Arthur C Clarke short story about termites, Retreat From Earth.

reply to post by Swills



I was kind of disturbed by the idea of Ant Genocide. I have to admit that I am awestruck by the architecture of these colonies. But is it worth it to just destroy like that only for us to see it and use it to better our understanding or fascinate our mind?

reply to post by cmdrkeenkid


Yeah buddy, these ant colonies are pretty awesome and I want one of my own. Now do I try to get one from the professor or do I try making one myself? The nice lady did warn me not to try this at home though...

reply to post by TheSparrowSings


I would have to say it is. With an estimated 10,000,000,000,000,000 ants in the world the thousands in one colony being sacrificed seems to be worth it to further our knowledge of them. The fascination is just a perk.

reply to post by Swills


I'm not sure if I would want to try that. Melting aluminum requires a pretty hot furnace and a lot could go wrong pretty easily. While it would be awesome to do, I'd have to say to leave this one to the professionals!

Here is another one from my YouTube play list. Same concept, much larger scale and equally as awesome.
Amazing creatures!

I saw this on a documentary, where it seemed to take a lot of effort to melt the metal near the ant colony. The casts are quite impressive.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
reply to post by TheSparrowSings

 

I would have to say it is. With an estimated 10,000,000,000,000,000 ants in the world the thousands in one colony being sacrificed seems to be worth it to further our knowledge of them. The fascination is just a perk.

Personally I don't have a problem with it, but I also would understand if an alien species a million years ahead of us thought we were as far below them as we think ants are below us, so they might think nothing of exterminating thousands of humans in their own experiments. (I think Neil Tyson and/or Michio Kaku and others have also suggested this possibility).

If you believe in Karma or what goes around comes around, we shouldn't be too surprised if we are the subject of experiments if or when advanced aliens come to visit.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


If it happens, it happens. We'll be no more prepared to deal with it than the ants, so no need to worry about it. I'm sure the ants don't.

This is why bugs survive nuclear attacks. just a few feet under soil.. Amazing little things. What does it mean that I feel bad for those little creatures burned alive

Kind of like a miniature recreation of Pompeii.

Personally, I don't feel bad for them really. In my yard alone there is several hundred tiny ant hills. The lossof one single colony is insignificant. I guess its a loss, but not one I would loose any sleep over.

To the poster above regarding Aliens as seeing us in a similar way that we see ants...
I agree completely. We are obviously inferior to them since we have barely just left our planet and they can travel the galaxy or maybe even universe.

Often I think about how they might see us. If they are friendly that would be great, but if they are not, or they want our resources or whatever, then I think we could seriously be in trouble.

But since this is an Ant thread, I won't get into that.
Awesome little creatures for sure. I always have been fascinated by them ever since I was young.

I killed an ant one time and my Father says to me..

" It took millions of years for you and that ant to cross paths and what do you do?.... You killed him!"

I really did learn a lesson that day....although I don't go out of my way not to step on an ant....I don't go out of my way to kill one either.

Soo....that leads me to this guy....what?? Sacrifice a couple ants so he can see how they build their home? Disgusting!!!!! Build a glass box with almost a clear sand and watch them build away....in other words...there's got to be a better way!

It sounds like this isn't the first time he's done this...just look at that garbage can. I'm sorry, but....ants have ants who depend on them....people have ants they depend on....they do eat a lot of insects! Ok..so maybe ants aren't that important...but still living non- the - less...

Right?

reply to post by Swills
Oh, the humantity!!

"We call this Ant Heaven..." Possibly because their arrival means death at the hands of Walter?

"It turns out that ants are some of nature's grand architects," says the narrator. Where on Earth has she been? Did she miss out on years of schooling?

Is this Prof Tschinkel too? (?!)



If the ants ever succeed in their world domination, they might make a cast of his bowels...

reply to post by tracehd1


You're correct. It isn't the first time he's done this. You can see several of his works in that video, plus they mention that he has exhibits throughout various museums around the world.

Some things you can study in the field much better than in a lab. For example, building a giant ant farm would be great if you wanted to see how ants work in two dimensions. These wild colonies expand outward to the sides and all around. Not all ants build in sand, or are able to build in sand. And even with minimal opacity it will still become obscured eventually, making some parts of the colony impossible to study. On top of that, you get to see how the ants work around different soil types and other natural barriers. You just cannot get that range in a lab.

Not too many ants eat living insects or small animals, though they will scavenge dead insects and small animals and eat them. Most ants eat honeydew from aphids (which some species also farm and raise), other forms of protein such as nuts and seeds, or even fungus that they grow in their colonies.

reply to post by Kandinsky


You're right! Termites, wasps, beavers, weaver birds, prairie dogs and spiders are also amazing architects!

Though, I think there must be some correlation with the name of "Walter" and being an awesome scientist (even a fictional one). Obviously, there is the man behind these ant colony molds, Walter Gilbert (DNA/RNA research, developed new methods of DNA sequencing), Walter Reed (discovered the origins of yellow fever), Walter White (high school chemistry teacher and entrepreneur), and Walter Bishop (mad scientist).