A supersoldier next to a normal ant: Scientists say they can create the supersoldiers at will by dabbing normal ant larvae with a special hormone - the larvae then develop into supersoldiers rather than normal soldier or worker ants
Posted on 01/05/2012 6:18:26 PM PST by null and void
Nightmarish 'supersoldier' ants with huge heads and jaws have been created by activating ancient genes.
A supersoldier next to a normal ant: Scientists say they can create the supersoldiers at will by dabbing normal ant larvae with a special hormone - the larvae then develop into supersoldiers rather than normal soldier or worker ants
Supersoldier ants can occur naturally in the wild, but only rarely. In the deserts of America and Mexico, their job is to protect the colony from raids by invading army ants.
The supersoldiers use their enormous heads to block the nest entrance and attack any enemy ants that get too close.
Scientists showed that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic 'tools' needed to turn them into supersoldiers - they just need a hormonal push.
The research is reported today in the journal Science.
Scientists created the monster ants in the laboratory by activating ancient ancestral genes
Authors Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues wrote: 'We uncovered an ancestral development potential to produce a novel supersoldier subcaste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago.'
The results suggest that holding on to ancestral development toolkits may play an important role in evolving new physical traits, say the researchers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
"...And I for one, welcome our new insect overlords."
Just sayin...
I just don’t know what to say.
Just wait until they screw it up and create ants that are the size of school buses, which will quickly multiply and invade cities and towns across the country, leaving no one alive!
One thing is for sure.... We shouldn’t be ‘going there’.....
I can just see the email pitches now....
Didn't the Nazis already do something like this?
We're Dooooomed!
The headline for this is seriously misleading. These ants are *not* manmade. They have the potential to become this way naturally. The scientists merely applied the appropriate hormone trigger to get them to express this form.
Fools! We have learned nothing - NOTHING - from ‘Them’.
I wonder if they have and uncles?.......yeah I had to do it.
Beyond constraints of Bible; think "Grim Fairy Tales" should be required reading for all school children - and 'wannabe scientists'. 'Frankenstein' as well.
Doctor's take Hippocratic Oath; what do scientists promise to honor?
Fortunately, insects wouldn’t be able to move if they grew much larger than they do.
That’s a good think.
These People need to be held responsible for doing these Experiments that put all of Civilization at risk.
Why,Oh why are they always trying to play god.I would hate to see some of these SOB’s escape a laboratory and setup colonies in the wild.
NO, NO, NO, NO,NO, NO, NO!
BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD,!
Love that movie we own it now. Free to watch or download Public Domain.
Them! (1954)
The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.
http://www.archive.org/details/PhantasmagoriaTheater-Them1954176
At Whole Foods our farm raised ants are all natural and not enhanced with hormones.
No good can come of this.
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