[HN Gopher] Ants create stable tunnels in nests, much like human...
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       Ants create stable tunnels in nests, much like humans play Jenga
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 63 points
       Date   : 2021-08-24 16:39 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | Ziggy_Zaggy wrote:
       | Good feedback.
        
       | boole1854 wrote:
       | This article is remarkable in its ability to completely misreport
       | the research it claims to be describing.
       | 
       | Quotes from the article:
       | 
       | > A new Caltech study found that ants search for and remove loose
       | grains of soil when digging their tunnels, much like humans
       | remove loose blocks while playing Jenga.
       | 
       | > The ants tap the individual grains to assess the mechanical
       | forces being exerted upon them.
       | 
       | In fact, this is completely wrong, and is exactly the opposite of
       | what the researchers found. The idea that the ants tap dirt
       | grains like a Jenga player was a *hypothesis* that the
       | researchers held *prior* to beginning their work:
       | 
       | > "We hypothesized that maybe ants were playing Jenga."
       | 
       | > "We thought maybe they were tapping grains of soil, and that
       | way they could assess the mechanical forces on them."
       | 
       | But their research showed that this is NOT what the ants do:
       | 
       | > "It turns out that by removing grains in this pattern that we
       | observed, the ants benefit from these circumferential force
       | chains as they dig down."
       | 
       | > "What we discovered was that they didn't seem to 'know' what
       | they are doing," Andrade says. "They didn't systematically look
       | for soft spots in the sand. Rather, they evolved to dig according
       | to the laws of physics."
       | 
       | Source: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/the-science-of-
       | undergroun...
        
         | bavell wrote:
         | Yep, headline is literally what the researchers said is not
         | happening... sigh.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-26 23:02 UTC)