The Daily Ant

Myrmecology Dies in Darkness

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Author: Benjamin Blanchard

  • Philosophy Phriday: Ruining Picnics with Epistemology

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the forty-fourth contribution in the series, submitted by Will Fleisher. Ruining Picnics with Epistemology Suppose you know that there is a picnic going on somewhere in a nearby park, but you aren’t sure where. You want…

  • Ant Babies and Their Superpowers

    Dedicated readers of The Daily Ant may remember that earlier this year, we featured myrmecologist Dr. Adrian Smith and his work on ant babies. Such readers may also remember our coverage of the Field Museum AntLab’s Dr. Shauna Price in a Theatre Thursdays installment. Well, recently, the same Dr. Price shared with us a marvelous BBC feature on ant…

  • Philosophy Phriday [On a Tuesday]: Video Interview With Branden Fitelson

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the forty-third contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Branden Fitelson, and our first-ever Tuesday Philosophy Phriday posting! NOTE: An upcoming contributor, Carolina Flores, shared with us a fundraising drive by Philosophers Against Factory Farming in support of the Humane…

  • The Daily Ant One-Year Antiversary: In Review

    It’s hard to believe it, but it’s true. What started out one year ago from yesterday as a podunk formicid-friendly online media project with an inaugural post on loving your house ants has grown into a podunk formicid-friendly online media project with 196 published articles. Whether you’re joining us now for the first time, or have…

  • Philosophy Phriday: If There’s a Number of Real Ants, Is There a Real Number of Ants?

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the forty-second contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. David Faraci. We apologize for yet another Monday posting. NOTE: An upcoming contributor, Carolina Flores, shared with us a fundraising drive by Philosophers Against Factory Farming in support of the Humane League.…

  • New iOS Ant Emoji Enrages Entomologist

    A guest post by Joanie King. I am antsy over the new ant emoji (iOS 11.2). Yes, I am restless and agitated. This is no ant. I am all for cartoons: the previous ant emoji (iOS 11.1) was a cartoon, but it did not suffer from such a horrible morphological representation. It was simpler.

  • Philosophy Phriday: Political Antimals

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the forty-first contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Sukaina Hirji. We apologize for the Monday posting – a mistake on our end, not Dr. Hirji’s! Political Antimals Aristotle famously asserts that ants are, by nature,…

  • Theatre Thursday: Field Museum’s Shauna Price at Music Box Theatre

    The Daily Ant hosts an intermittent ant film series, Theatre Thursdays. This is the third installment. Enjoy! On Tuesday, denizens of the Music Box Theatre in Wrigleyville, Chicago were treated to something truly special: A showing of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and a post-film discussion with Dr. Shauna Price, a postdoctoral researcher in the Moreau AntLab at the Field…

  • Philosophy Phridays: Asshoppers and Grants – Playing at Being Human?

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the fortieth contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Amber L. Griffioen. Asshoppers and Grants: Playing at Being Human? ‘Parables, my dear Skepticus,’ replied the Grasshopper, ‘ought to come at the end, not at the beginning,…

  • Philosophy Phriday: Metaethical Implications of Myrmecology

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the thirty-ninth contribution in the series, submitted by Joshua Blanchard. The Metaethical Implications of Myrmecology Metaethics is the subfield of moral philosophy having to do with the metaphysics, epistemology, semantics, and psychology of the moral domain.…

  • Formicid Form: Be Beautiful, Noble, Like the Antique Ant

    The Daily Ant maintains “Formicid Form”, a Sunday ant poetry series. When possible, our Verse Correspondant, Natalia Piland, provides a short commentary at the end of each poem. Enjoy! Be Beautiful, Noble, Like the Antique Ant (1908-1997) By Jose Garcia Villa Be beautiful, noble, like the antique ant, Who bore the storms as he* bore the…

  • Philosophy Phriday: Value Free Ideal for Scieants

    The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the thirty-eighth contribution in the series, submitted by Liam Kofi Bright. The Value Free Ideal for Scieants It’s not easy running a colony. Eggs need to be laid, food needs to be gathered, tunnels need to…