If you are on the planet Earth right now, there's probably a pretty good chance you're near an ant right now. So spare a thought for those hard working little fellows and unplug your headphones so they can hear this episode about ants (featuring special guest Maddie Sofia) and learn more about themselves!
Want more Maddie Sofia in your life? Check them out on Twitter @maddie_sofia, watch the episode of PBS's Deep Look that inspired their poem, or go to Maddie's website to find countless more projects!
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A big thank you to Patreon subscribers Garth Riley, Mike A, and Tom Mosner for helping to make the show possible!
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While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen
[Trivia Question]
First commercial formicarium
https://archive.dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/article/1988/12/1/the-man-who-invented-the-ant-farm-not-to-mention-the-ant-coal-mine
https://www.dartmouth.edu/library/Library_Bulletin/Apr1993/LB-A93-Cramer.html?mswitch-redir=classic
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
[Fact Off]
Ants stealing food from a pitcher plant
Ants swimming in pitcher plants: kinematics of aquatic and terrestrial locomotion in Camponotus schmitzi
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-tropical-ecology/article/abs/swimming-ants-and-pitcher-plants-a-unique-antplant-interaction-from-borneo/603B9F3C479FF3D2CF369E23B4EF67E0
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01937.x
Marauder ants and major worker piggyback rides
https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/10359.ch01.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4155725/
https://sib.illinois.edu/suarez/local/suarez/uploads/2020/01/Wills_etal_2018_ARE.pdf
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_75-1
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-ento-020117-043357
[Ask the Science Couch]
Ant size/strength
https://engineering.osu.edu/news/2014/02/study-ants-remarkable-strength-may-lead-powerful-micro-sized-robots
https://www.wired.com/video/watch/why-humans-cant-lift-as-much-as-ants
https://askdruniverse.wsu.edu/2017/07/20/how_ants_are_strong/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2113824-coconut-crabs-bone-crushing-grip-is-10-times-stronger-than-ours/
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/allometry-the-study-of-biological-scaling-13228439/
[Butt One More Thing]
Parasitic beetle disguised as ant butt
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/the-beetle-that-pretends-to-be-an-army-ants-butt/516522/
https://bmczool.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40850-016-0010-x
