

How tiny insects survive the rain - thinker
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18294324

======
pdx
I just listened to 'Micro', Michael Crichton's last book (completed by another
author after his death)
[http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00687OAI2&qid...](http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00687OAI2&qid=1338927290&sr=1-1)

That book taught me a ton about the different physics that apply "in the micro
world" that insects inhabit. The physics of falling and of water tension at
that scale are so different than we are used to.

~~~
bitwize
One of the brilliant things about _The Secret World of Arrietty_ is how water
works in that movie. At Borrower scales, water is more viscous than we
perceive it, and their soup and tea become thick gels. At one point, Arrietty
brushes droplets of herself and they remain coherent because of the high
surface tension. And this is all shown brilliantly through animation.

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mhartl
In this vein, there's a wonderful article by Edward Purcell called "Life at
Low Reynolds Number":

[http://brodylab.eng.uci.edu/~jpbrody/reynolds/lowpurcell.htm...](http://brodylab.eng.uci.edu/~jpbrody/reynolds/lowpurcell.html)

(Purcell won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of nuclear magnetic
resonance. He also discovered the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen and authored
an iconic textbook on electricity & magnetism.)

~~~
ableal
Thanks for the link.

I like the introduction referring to the original talk: _"Some essential hand
waving could not be reproduced."_

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freshnote
Not to derail too much, but insects are much misunderstood and wrongly
vilified, which is why I wrote Take the Humane Stance with Ants:
[http://allsprawldown.com/animal-ethics/taking-an-ethical-
sta...](http://allsprawldown.com/animal-ethics/taking-an-ethical-stance-with-
carpenter-ants/)

Please share this with someone who is quick with the can of Raid.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Except you write this:

 _"Typically, when a person spots a carpenter ant inside the home, they assume
the worst. They fear a swarming, thriving ant colony is breeding within the
house. This is rarely the case. Carpenter ants live in hollow trees, logs,
landscaping timbers, and soil, and will march hundreds of metres from their
colony in search of food."_

So think about that for a moment. What is a "hollow tree" or a wood frame wall
with two sheets of drywall on either side? The Ants may think it is a
particularly square hollow tree but hey, its warm, its hollow.

And the 'hundreds of meters in search of food' but they also don't "pass up"
food. So for you too see an Ant in your kitchen you know that between where
that ant lives, and your kitchen, they didn't find any food yet. That can be
explained by a particularly sterile yard, or the home is between your kitchen
and the yard. And what else it between your kitchen and the yard, why yes,
that warm hollow space known as a wood frame wall.

All of that being said, ants (and many other insects) are machines. Very much
like bacterium with all wheel drive capability. They eat, they reproduce, they
die. They convert low level sugars into a complex carbohydrates that birds and
other vertebrates use to fuel their own growth. And like a machine, they can
be running where they aren't needed. So is it some act of bad faith to turn
off your car? No it is not. We need look no further than other ant colonies,
which, when they detect ants in their home that are not expected to be there,
they mercilessly and without delay slaughter them. The machine doesn't care
that its elements are processing food other things want, and turning off the
machine by neutralizing its agents doesn't incur any 'bad karma.'

~~~
freshnote
You claim insects are like "machines" that "mercilessly slaughter". If insects
have no sentient attributes like mercy, how can they slaughter others
mercilessly?

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Also: what you hate, you fear.

~~~
sliverstorm
_If insects have no sentient attributes like mercy, how can they slaughter
others mercilessly?_

Easy. Since they lack attributes like mercy, they slaughter without it. That
is to say, they slaughter mercilessly.

And, really, In the context of creatures without mercy, such a phrase can
alternatively be viewed as a literary device comparing how the ants act to how
a human acts. I'm not sure what the term would be... personification? E.g.,
"The trees wept".

~~~
philsnow
anthropomorphism

