The Real Alien Ant Farm

Children have been fascinated by ant farms for many decades now (as well as their parents who will quite often use the kids as an excuse to buy one). NASA technology allows us to see the ants in an entirely new and slightly surreal way, born from the problem of sending ants into space to observe their behavior in zero gravity. A standard ant farm with soil or sand would collapse instantly upon takeoff.

So, how do you get the tiny harvester ants with their powerful jaws and tenacious nature up beyond the blue? NASA rose to the problem and their solution was to create the gel that you can see here. Because of its chemical composition it does not collapse during launch. Wouldn’t that happen to the ants too? The answer is no – ants are incredibly resilient and able to withstand the G force of lift off with no problem.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.