Improbable Research

Sedeer el-Showk [pictured here] does what might be called a literary experiment: describing human agriculture from the perspective of “attine ants, a group of ants which have evolved a mutualistic relationship with certain fungi that can only be described as a form of agriculture”:

In addition to the difficulties of communication, other biological limitations of humans may serve to explain some of the shortcomings of their agricultural practices. For example, while we can provide important liquid supplements to our fungi, individual humans appear unable to directly produce the nutrients needed by their crops, which are instead provided by the activity of specialized castes working in structures dedicated to this task. Studies have demonstrated that the fragrant anal paste produce by humans is a suitable substrate for plant growth; surprisingly, however, humans do not take advantage of this resource. Some researchers have suggested that humans may be unable to properly ensure the hygiene of crops grown in this manner and would thus be exposed to an unacceptable risk of parasitism, although others contend that the anal paste has in fact been used by some colonies. Clearly, further research is needed to understand this aspect of human agriculture….

In the same blog post, he also describes ant agriculture from the perspective of humans.

Jessica Halpin has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). She says:

I’m a MS-wielding microbiologist at a large government agency. I troubleshoot and develop protocols for molecular subtyping of bacterial foodborne pathogens.

Jessica Halpin, MS, LFHCfS
Research Microbiologist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Frank Wilczek writes, in his essay “What is the Electron“, of how people have figured out how to make better and better (and better) measurements pertaining to that teeny tiny particle:

“Theoretical calculations have  become intricate, now including fluctuations in  fluctuations in fluctuations.”

A version of that essay is part of Nature magazine’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of Neils Bohr’s idea that the atom is a quantum beastie.

Newly reported research with dragonflies follows, at least in spirit, in the wingbeats of the Ig Nobel Prize-winning locust/Star Wars research.

Greg Miller reports on the new work, in Wired:

Scientists Put Backpacks on Dragonflies to Track Their Brains in Flight

The brain of a dragonfly has to do some serious calculations — and fast — if it hopes to nab a mosquito or midge in midair. It has to predict the trajectory of its prey, plot a course to intersect it, then make adjustments on the fly to counteract any evasive maneuvers. Neuroscientist Anthony Leonardo created the tiny dragonfly backpack above to study how circuits of neurons do these computations. The backpack weighs 40 milligrams, about as much as a couple grains of sand, equal to just 10 percent of the dragonfly’s weight. Electrodes inserted into the dragonfly’s body and brain record the electrical activity of neurons, and a custom-made chip amplifies the signals and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby computer….

in 2005, the Ig Nobel peace prize was awarded to Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in the U.K., for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie “Star Wars.” [They described their research in the study "Orthopteran DCMD Neuron: A Reevaluation of Responses to Moving Objects. I. Selective Responses to Approaching Objects," F.C. Rind and P.J. Simmons, Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 68, no. 5, November 1992, pp. 1654-66.]

This brief video by Koki Tanaka shows one way to draw a line on a road: