Rowan Hooper, news editor
(Image: Manfred Kage/Science Photo Library)
DON'T fear, ants haven't started constructing
micromachines, though I wouldn't put it past them. Perhaps the most
impressive of all insects - no mean feat when there are some 3 million
species - ants construct peerless, air-conditioned homes, tend fungus gardens underground and perhaps even farm other insects for meat.
Their societies are among the biggest and most complex on Earth, their
military prowess formidable, and their strength-to-weight ratio
legendary.
This one, however, is dead. To image
biological material in a scanning electron microscope it must be
freeze-dried so it doesn't rupture in the vacuum of the instrument.
Specimens must also be electrically conductive, otherwise the intense
beam of electrons hitting it will build up an electric charge. This
means that non-metallic objects have to be coated in a thin film of
metal, often gold.
To be sealed in an armour of gold
after death - well, it isn't a bad way to go. It seems particularly
fitting for an animal that can learn to adapt its behaviour when necessary, will sacrifice itself for its nest mates, and forms the largest cooperative unit ever recorded.
Ants haven't yet been recorded
manipulating micromechanical cogs, however - except in stunts set up by
cunning electron microscope technicians.
http://www.newscientist.com/
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