Author: John Richards Added: May 16, 2009
Gel ant farms are ant farms from space - literally! The space program has always been a bit off the wall, but surely the gel ant farm must be NASA's crowning glory. Ever since our friends in the Soviet Union sent a small dog called Laika to her doom in space for no apparent reason, we've been wondering what (on Earth!) space research was supposed to be for. It's all about gravity Well, it turns out that ant farms also feature high on Nasa’s list of worthwhile experiments. Ever since the beginning or the space program, scientist have tried to capitalize on the opportunity to have a gravity-free environment in which to do experimnents. From trying to grow unfeasibly-large crystals of silicon (for micro-chip manufacture) to plant growth behavior, it's all been done. Some work and others don't. But that’s science, of course. The mystery of underground navigation And one of these experiments was the now famous Gel Ant Farm. Quite how ants manage to build and navigate their way through subterranean tunnels has always been something of a mystery. Therefore, in order to discover how they did it, NASA scientists tried to develop a clear gel which would make the ants visible as they built their tunnels. The gel also needed to be sufficiently stable to withstand the high G-forces associated with launch and re-entry. Of course, any tunnel built in sand or soil would collapse under this extreme G force. High G wouldn’t affect the ants, of course, they are easily strong enough to take such forces in their stride. The Gel Ant Farm was launched, along with seven astronauts to look after it, and the ants got to work. As I understand it, the tunnels were a somewhat more wiggly than ones made in the same gel by the same species on earth so gravity was thought to play a part in the ants’ subterranean efforts. But, as far as I know, we didn’t find out much else. Not to worry though, the bonus is that we now have a huge range of gel ant farms that are educational and great fun for kids. Some people say that non-stick frying pans are the only good thing ever to come out of the space program – not so – we now have gel ant farms as well!
--- Discover for yourself the fun you and your kids can have with a gel ant farm at http://www.antfarmcentral.com/gelantfarms.html
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