adventuresinchemistry:

jewishdragon:

adventuresinchemistry:

do you ever come across a hyper specific science fact and you’re just like…why did anyone feel the need to test that?

Like that thing about ants counting their steps and know how long their stride is so when attaching the stilts to ants they get lost?

Exactly like that

I think a lot of those weird things are born of wandering trains of thought. Things like: 

• How do ants remember how to get back to the nest? 
• Right, pheromone trails.
• But what about these specific ants that live where the desert sand constantly blows out from under them? The trail wouldn’t last. 
• And there can’t be landmarks, those would change too. 
• Maybe they count their steps. 
• How do we test that? 
• I have an idea and I am going to need a lot of ants and a lot of tiny stilts.