

Ants can sense earthquakes a day in advance - greenyoda
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Ants-can-sense-earthquakes-a-day-in-advance/articleshow/19514232.cms

======
jpxxx
This overseas reblog of a pop science blog which co-blogged a piece from
@beckyoskin working for a blogring does not pass the smell test. At the very
least, the headline is garbage.

There is no link to the source (here:
<http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/1/63/pdf>), no supporting material presented,
it makes some odd claims starting with "ants prefer to live on active faults"
(this paper says nothing about that - it's talking about ants that happen to
be found in a geologically interesting faulting area) and ends up with "ants
can predict earthquakes". Which then goes up to the headline.

Stop stop stop stop stop.

This paper is a decent exploration of performing day+night video analysis to
describe above-ground ant behavior over large periods. The rest of it seems
reaching and improbable, but I don't have the background to comment on any of
the math or geology presented.

~~~
jpxxx
Ok, nevermind on the siting bit, the paper is drafting on her PHD thesis which
presumably supports the argument that these ants mounds correlate with faults.

------
brownbat
Funny enough, I was just listening to the bit on ant intelligence from
Radiolab:

<http://www.radiolab.org/2007/aug/14/>

tl;dl - Longtime ant researcher is resigned to the fact _individual_ ants are
incredibly stupid and ineffective, sometimes just carrying a stick back and
forth for days. But in colonies - somehow brilliance can emerge. They'll can
predict major thunderstorms well enough in advance to build defensive walls
around the entrance to their colony to direct floods around it.

------
dchichkov
I'm curious, can they use these 'magneto-receptor cells' for other things?
Like predicting stock market moves?

No. Seriously. They've used 5 data points in the research. Five. Calling that
a 'possible correlation' is just calling for trouble.

Here is a link to the original article.
<http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/1/63/pdf>

~~~
brianobush
Call it a pilot study and go ask for funding. Seriously, if a specific
behavior can be reproduced five times in a row that is pretty indicative that
something is happening. Of course, uncovering the root cause is going to be
quite hard.

------
georgemcbay
In related news, Italy has started shipping ants off to prison for failing to
report earthquakes prior to their occurrence.

~~~
e40
I'm really starting to dislike the number of snarky comments on HN. I used to
love the fact that I never saw them. They have become much more common
recently. In flux of new users? georgemcbay isn't, but why the increase?? It's
why I don't read comments on reddit and why I always liked reading them here.
<sigh>

~~~
weirdcat
My thoughts exactly. I wish there was a way to filter them out other than
downvoting. Something like a "flag as non-constructive" button with a
corresponding settings entry, allowing to either not show them at all or
change the display style so that they could be skimmed through quickly.

I personally come to HN to learn new things, not to participate in witty
banter.

~~~
gnosis
Tags would work well here. A comment could be tagged as "snarky" or "funny" or
"humor", and you could easily filter on that.

The ability to tag comments and stories has been repeatedly suggested on HN
and, unfortunately, always rejected.

------
ankitml
Stop posting stuff from Times of India, this tabloid has one of the least
thoughtful papers of the country! If by chance you find a good journalism
piece in this tabloid, it is mostly lifted from somewhere else.

~~~
darwinGod
:-/ Exactly. TOI (Times of India), is missing an adjective in the beginning.
It really is: (Garbage) Times of India.

It really is the last place on Earth I would hope to read any decent article
on Science/Tech.

However it truly is cutting edge,if anybody wants to find out who was the
latest Bollywood "celebrity" that got caught because of drunken driving.

------
thirsteh
If backed up, this would be huge. Seismologists don't really stand a chance
right now.

