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Ants stepping out

It seems that ants have pedometers which count their steps and direction even when wearing stilts or with shorn-down legs — including in the dark — plus enough mental togetherness to navigate directly home from wherever they turn up, and to train other ants how to get there.

Fairly impressive for a six-legged exo-skeletal crawly thing the size of your fingernail cuttings, no?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Now if only I could get the step counters on the LH side of the ant to divide by 2, then I could get all of the PESKY INVADING LITTLE SO-AND-SOs TO TURN AROUND AND LEAVE MY KITCHEN.

Interesting- must tell Mr Mann about this.
30 June, 2006 14:56
Leon RJ Brooks said…
Perhaps Western Dynamics or The Mars Society will invent a little ant-robot which teaches the tannic ants to walk out of the house altogether?
02 July, 2006 13:56
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