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Can I write my name in Ants?

J

Jolly_Penguin

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I know that the ants go marching one by one (hurrah!) because they leave a scent trail to follow. And I have noticed that if I cean an area they are marching through with a cloth, I can disrupt that scent trail and thoroughly confuse them.

But.... have scientists extracted that chemical/scent and put it in pen form so that I can write my name in Ants?

Do they have art exhibits made of living ants?

Can this be done???? I WANT TO SEE THIS.
 
Not quite what you're asking for, but Richard Feynman experimented with ants and their trails. In one case, he drew colored pencil lines behind an ant to observe how they fine-tune their trails. In another, he carried ants from one place to another in an "Ant Ferry" to lure them away from his food pantry without killing them.

Are you proposing milking ants for their pheromones?
 
James Brown said:
Are you proposing milking ants for their pheromones?
Click to expand...

That or making a synthetic equivalent of their pheremones. The end goal is to direct them in a path we choose, and possibly make an art exhibit out of them. Or to write my name in ants. How incredibly cool this would be!
 
I remember from somewhere listening or reading about a trick Penn Jilette wanted to do (on Letterman I think) where he wanted to do something just like that. I think they ended up contacting E.O. Wilson about it and he said it couldn't be done. This is all from memory mind you, which means take it with a boulder of salt.
 
James Brown said:
Are you proposing milking ants for their pheromones?
Click to expand...

We've almost got them to the right size.

Cr2saMeXEAQqMD6.jpg


We performed functional experiments to demonstrate that genome-wide DNA methylation indirectly regulates the quantitative methylation of Egfr to generate quantitative variation in the size of workers. By linking a continuous distribution in a trait in a natural population with a continuous distribution of DNA methylation states in a single gene, our study provides an epigenetic mechanism for generating quantitative variation in organismal phenotypes.
Click to expand...

http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7513
 
To write one's name in ants, I presume the following would have to happen:

1) We figure out how to milk a bunch of ants for their pheromones, enough to fill an ink pen, on the assumption that any ant will be drawn to any other ant's pheromone. (As territorial as ants are, this seems problematic).

2) We use the pen to write on a surface the desired name.

3) We release a bunch of ants onto the surface, on the assumption that they will wander around at random until they find the pheromone trail.

4) The ants will finally come to a stand-still, lining themselves up head to tail along the trails, and just stand there long enough for someone to take a picture. "Hey! My name in Ants!"
 
James Brown said:
To write one's name in ants, I presume the following would have to happen:

1) We figure out how to milk a bunch of ants for their pheromones, enough to fill an ink pen, on the assumption that any ant will be drawn to any other ant's pheromone. (As territorial as ants are, this seems problematic).

2) We use the pen to write on a surface the desired name.

3) We release a bunch of ants onto the surface, on the assumption that they will wander around at random until they find the pheromone trail.

4) The ants will finally come to a stand-still, lining themselves up head to tail along the trails, and just stand there long enough for someone to take a picture. "Hey! My name in Ants!"
Click to expand...

No No No! Not just stand there. I want them marching back and forth along the trail. I want a line of moving ants. Perhaps they could make it look like those fancy neon signs with the blinking lights or something. Do some genetic engineering and make the ants glow in the dark or light up!
 
What if you set up sugar or some other ant food (whatever that is) along a certain preset path on a smooth that spells something, then let ants loose so they go eat the food and leave the pheromone trails. Then wipe out whatever pheromones are outside the path. Ants should be still following in the original route...
 
These kinds of things can only be answered through experimentation.

Thinking about it is worthless.

If all ants did was respond to pheromones they would not need eyes.
 
Where I live, you'd just need to write your name in gravy and sit back.

Sugar, if your local ant is a sugar ant.

Or Ant Rid.
 
spikepipsqueak said:
Where I live, you'd just need to write your name in gravy and sit back.

Sugar, if your local ant is a sugar ant.

Or Ant Rid.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, also. Write your name in something the ants like, they'll lay their own trail.
 
James Brown said:
Not quite what you're asking for, but Richard Feynman experimented with ants and their trails. In one case, he drew colored pencil lines behind an ant to observe how they fine-tune their trails. In another, he carried ants from one place to another in an "Ant Ferry" to lure them away from his food pantry without killing them.

Are you proposing milking ants for their pheromones?
Click to expand...

It would require a short stool and a very tiny bucket.
 
Isn't the scent trail specific to the colony? That would imply not a single chemical that can be extracted, but a unique mix of several.
 
I don't see why this can't be done with the right science and determined artistic minds. We could make millions with our Live Ant Art exhibitions in galleries all around the world. Huzzah!
 
I thought the sensitivity of an ant's antennae exceeded our best instruments. So perhaps it is impossible for us to create an exact match for a particular colony.
 
Wouldn't you then be harvesting the ant's distress pheromone? How would you keep the trail following pheromone from being contaminated?
 
Jolly_Penguin said:
I know that the ants go marching one by one (hurrah!) because they leave a scent trail to follow. And I have noticed that if I cean an area they are marching through with a cloth, I can disrupt that scent trail and thoroughly confuse them.

But.... have scientists extracted that chemical/scent and put it in pen form so that I can write my name in Ants?

Do they have art exhibits made of living ants?

Can this be done???? I WANT TO SEE THIS.
Click to expand...
Me I stopped bothering ants at age 7. I could see they already had a hard job of it without some idiot with no better things to do in his day than play God to them. Thou art going to write My name you little ants!
EB
 
untermensche said:
These kinds of things can only be answered through experimentation.

Thinking about it is worthless.

If all ants did was respond to pheromones they would not need eyes.
Click to expand...
The eyes are just so they can see their God better when writing His name.
EB
 
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