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Almost 50 million years ago, ants the size of hummingbirds roamed what is now Wyoming, a new fossil discovery reveals. These giant bugs may have crossed an Arctic land bridge between Europe and North America during a particularly warm period in Earth's history. At about 2 inches (5 cm) long, the specimen is a "monstrously big ant," said Bruce Archibald, a paleoentomologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who reported the discovery today (May 3) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Though fossils of loose giant ant wings have been found before in the United States,...

"The Ant and the Grasshopper," a fable by Aesop, provides a moral lesson about hard work and saving. During the warm months, the ant works hard to store up food for the winter, while the grasshopper sings and plays. When winter arrives, the grasshopper asks the ant for food because it has none. In today's world, China is like the ant, and America is like the grasshopper. America tends to focus on enjoying today instead of preparing for tomorrow. This trait has led to a nation of debtors. And, like for the grasshopper, our lack of savings may lead to...

Earliest evidence of fungus that takes over ants' behaviour for its own ends found by scientists. The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists. The gruesome hallmark of the fungus's handiwork was found on the leaves of plants that grew in Messel, near Darmstadt in Germany, 48m years ago. The finding shows that parasitic fungi evolved the ability to control the creatures they infect in the distant past, even before the rise of the Himalayas. The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today,...

It is not widely known that Aesop (floruit circa 550 B.C.), a visionary writer if there ever was one, composed two versions of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. The traditional version used to be very widely known — you’ll see in a moment why it is out of favor today — and it can be outlined briefly: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter,...

The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers. Most social insects—the wasps, ants and bees—are relatively used to daily life without males. Their colonies are well run by swarms of sterile sisters lorded over by an egg-laying queen. But, eventually, all social insect species have the ability to produce a crop of males who go forth in the world to fertilize new queens and propagate. Queens of the ant Mycocepurus smithii reproduce without fertilization and...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself! MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant...

This one is a little different.... Two Different Versions! ................. Two Different Morals! OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself. MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house...

A fly lays an egg inside an unsuspecting victim walking in the woods on a sunny day. Soon the egg matures and moves into the head of its prey, taking bodily control before turning the prey into a living zombie. Before the victim knows what's happening, its head pops off and a new fly emerges, off to find another host. Sound like a plot from a familiar horror movie? It is actually real — a new species of a fire ant-controlling bug is being introduced into East Texas — through a joint effort of the University of Texas and Texas...

This leaf-cutter ant species is all female and thrives without sex of any kind—ever—according to a new study. The ants have evolved to reproduce only when queens clone themselves. "They appear to have evolved a new mode of reproduction, and the genetic mechanisms have yet to be worked out," said lead study author Anna Himler, a research associate at the University of Arizona. In M. smithii the typical muscular reproductive organ of female ants has evolved into a "sort of a ghost of an organ at this point," Himler added. No male of the species has ever been found, and...

Quick, Make Like an AntApril 5, 2009 — Ants deserve a lot of respect, despite being a nuisance in the kitchen.  The very fact they are so effective at bugging us is a testament to their ingenuity in foraging, communicating and organizing themselves into successful colonies.  We might just gain some valuable knowledge by watching them more closely. Foraging: Live Science says that ants forage haphazardly, but there might be a method to their madness.  Anyone who has watched ant scouts on the kitchen sink knows they seem to go this way and that without a plan.  Why don’t they...

A newly discovered species of a blind, subterranean predator — dubbed the "Ant from Mars" — is likely a descendant of one of the very first ants to evolve on Earth, a new study finds.

WASHINGTON, June 19 — President Bush will issue an executive order intended to encourage scientific advances in regenerative medicine, according to senior White House officials who said Mr. Bush would announce the initiative on Wednesday, just as he vetoes a measure promoting embryonic stem cell research. The embryonic stem cell measure has widespread public support, and the veto would be the second time Mr. Bush has rejected it. By pairing the veto with a new scientific initiative, the White House clearly hopes to blunt the inevitable criticism that Mr. Bush will face from researchers, advocates for patients and politicians, including...

A frog with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of eastern Suriname, scientists said Monday. The expedition was sponsored by two mining companies hoping to excavate the area for bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum, and it was unknown how the findings would affect their plans. Scientists discovered the species during a 2005 expedition led by the U.S.-based nonprofit Conservation International in rainforests and swamps about 80 miles southeast of Paramaribo, the capital of the South American country, organization spokesman Tom Cohen said.

WASHINGTON, December 8, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The question, "when is an embryo a human being?" continues to dog a bioethics community in search of a way to allow embryonic stem cell research without guilt. Now, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, seeking to free up federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, has proposed a new compromise. Dr. William Hurlbut has proposed the creation of a new kind of genetically engineered "organismic entity" that would produce human embryonic stem cells, but which would not qualify, he says, as a human embryo. Hurlbut, a member of the President's Council...

Seeking an Ethical Option to Embryonic Stem Cell Research    REV. THOMAS BERG There might be an ethically acceptable alternative for obtaining embryonic stem cells, says a bioethicist. Legionary of Christ Father Thomas Berg, executive director of the Westchester Institute, a Catholic ethics think tank located in suburban New York, sees hope for a process known as altered nuclear transfer. He gave an overview of the status of stem cell research in this interview with ZENIT.Q: What is the ethical problem with embryonic stem cell research? Father Berg: The problem is that the methods currently used to obtain these cells...

The night before he announced to the nation that he was shifting his stance on stem cell research, U.S. Sen. Jim Talent conferred with his wife. As he tells it, Brenda Talent, who is known for her frankness, had a prediction: "Jim, two things are going to happen: Nobody's going to like it, and they're all going to say you're doing it just for political reasons." Replied the senator, "Well, if nobody likes it, why in the world would I be doing it for political reasons?" But that's the flak Talent is fielding from all sides, in the wake of...

Biting the hand that feeds IT Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/29/google_ant/Say hello to Google ant By Lester Haines Published Tuesday 29th November 2005 11:32 GMT Proof absolute that Google' tentacles extend across the world's surface, touching even the most humble of God's creatures comes with the news that a California entomologist has named a species of ant after the search monolith.Brian Fisher of the California Academy of Sciences dubbed a newly-discovered species of Madagascan ant Proceratium google because he was "impressed with the support he got from the Google Earth team when he was integrating the online warehouse of ant data, AntWeb...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4472521.stm Trap-building ants torture prey   With cunning and patience, the ants cut hairs from the stem of the plant they inhabit, and use the tiny fibres to build a spongy platform. The elaborate trap snares its prey, which is then stretched like a victim on a mediaeval rack before being hacked to pieces. The ants divide labour according to age, with the oldest individuals being trap builders   A fierce species of Amazonian ant has been seen building elaborate traps on which hapless prey are stretched like medieval torture victims, before being slowly hacked to pieces.With cunning and patience,...

Bring on the hate mail. I know I'll be receiving plenty of it from the people who don't want to hear what I'm going to say. To begin with, I'm tired of the hard working people in the United States playing Atlas to those who don't plan beyond the moment or to those who believe that the rest of the world exists to bail them out when they encounter disaster. Government spending of citizens' hard earned tax dollars to bail out every victim of disaster, poor business practice, or persons lacking in motive to overcome adversity has led to a...

The ant and the grasshopper OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY FOR OLD VERSION: Be responsible for yourself. MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter....

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself! MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances...

Classic VersionThe ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool...(snip)Modern VersionThe ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool..(snip)..CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast...(snip)Click here for full article.

[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 4/15/02 ] Researchers find 3,600-mile ant supercolony Millions of nests form network stretching from Italy to Spain The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- A supercolony of ants has been discovered stretching thousands of miles from the Italian Riviera along the coastline to northwest Spain. It's the largest cooperative unit ever recorded, according to Swiss, French and Danish scientists, whose findings appear in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The colony consists of billions of Argentine ants living in millions of nests that cooperate with one another. Normally, ants from different nests fight....

<p>A supercolony of ants has been discovered stretching thousands of miles from the Italian Riviera along the coastline to northwest Spain.</p> <p>It's the largest cooperative unit ever recorded, according to Swiss, French and Danish scientists, whose findings appear in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</p>

ORIGINAL VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying in supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying in supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come...