The Daily Ant
Myrmecology Dies in Darkness
Author: Benjamin Blanchard
-
Poet John Ashbery died late Sunday, at the age of 90. In honor of the polarizing poet, we present his 1979 poem, “Late Echo”: Alone with our madness and favorite flower We see that there really is nothing left to write about. Or rather, it is necessary to write about the same old things In…
-
The Daily Ant is thrilled to report that the American Museum of Natural History is poised to truly live up to its name. Although announced on January 11, 2017, we were previously unaware of this historic development: AMNH will soon house an insectarium! Marvel at the gorgeous artistic rendering of the plans: The renovations are…
-
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 twenty-eighth contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Marc Lange. Ants Are Alive Ants are widely reported to be alive. These reports raise an obvious question: What is it for something to be alive? By…
-
Here at The Daily Ant, we know that so much of the mainstream media enjoys focusing on (allegedly) negative ant characteristics. Our online newspaper actively works to counteract this insidious bias. However, there are a few truly bad actors within the formicid family that deserve genuine condemnation. Fire ants are one of these few bad actors.…
-
Ant Colony Optimization is an excellent example of ant biology directly improving human affairs (in this case, planning delivery routes and other uses). Thus, we were excited to learn that University of Illinois at Chicago graduate student Anika Hazra created an interesting antfographic that introduces the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm and explains its utility! Hazra…
-
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 twenty-seventh contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Ryan Kemp. The Existential Upshot of Crazy Ants The ant has an ambiguous place in Western literature. We all know Aesop’s classic rendition: the industrious ant measured…
-
Well, the most recent mega Powerball jackpot of $759 million has been claimed. But did you know? A single supercolony of Argentine ants in southern Europe numbers in the billions, so if this supercolony is the winner, each ant receives less than a dollar. Too bad!
-
Yesterday, in addition to breaking a news story about ants and the solar eclipse, The Daily Ant was also informed by Thinker Correspondant Jordan MacKenzie that the cartoon sitcom Rick and Morty recently featured a new character, Million Ants. He apparently developed a relationship with another character in the show, Supernova – as the fan…
-
As vertebrates swarm to various destinations throughout the continental United States in order to observe a total eclipse of the sun, experts predict that tens of billions of ants are bracing themselves to stop and remain motionless during the imminent periods of total darkness. This forecast, supported by the scientific literature, should send shockwaves around…
-
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 twenty-sixth contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Sameer Yadav. Anthropocentrism: A Problem for Neuroethology and Philosophical Theology As the summer months grow hotter it becomes ant-season inside our home. In search of food and…
-
Are ants really that important? Clearly, readers of The Daily Ant ought to be settled on this question. But for the unantlightened, what strong evidence exists in the scientific literature to support the unique importance of ants in, say, tropical ecosystems? A skeptic could make the argument that such a view is only tentatively supported by qualitative assessments,…
-
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 twenty-fifth contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Gabriel Richardson Lear. Aristotle and Myrmecology as a Humanistic Discipline “The study of ants is the way to self-knowledge.” Aristotle didn’t actually say that, but he might…
The Daily Ant 