Scientists from California,America, were investigating about animals and their daily life. They came across ants and found out that ants bury other ants that are dead. Also, that within one hour, the dead ants are taken away from the nest. Now scientists were asking them selves, how do ants know if the other ant is dead or not? It was one of the most interesting topics they had ever done. Dong-Hwan Choe, a biologist, lead the study.He studies about living things in the University of California, Riverside. The first thing he found out was that Argentine ants have a chemical on their bodies telling the other ants- "I'm dead." All the ants include this chemical. Some citizens think that the ants are like zombies since they can crawl around even if they are dead. How do the ants know if the other is only unconscious or is actually dead?(Was the next question the scientist came across) Well, Choe found out that ants posses a chemical telling- "Wait-I'm not dead yet." That's how ants are sure if they are alive. If an ant is unconscious, they leave it until it wakes up and don't move it. Choe also predicts that once an ant dies, the chemical saying: "I'm not dead yet" disappears. To see if he was right, he tested it on the ants and yes it was true. The other thing that scientist discovered was that ants are pretty much like humans because once someone dies, we bury him and so do the ants in a way. After all, the purpose of the study, was to learn more about animals life and the cycle of ants.
As I read the article, the facts didn't really connect to what we are studying now in class, and even though the article was posted in 2009, I though it would be a cool discovery to post and make others read about. I choose to read about this article because now, I found out that we as humans, are very much like ants which is amazing since they are animals. Also, as I was reading, I though that the article was very interesting because it had a lot of supporting details and gave me a clear mind of what is going on in an ants world. I never really enjoyed learning about ants because I think they can be disgusting, but reading about this, opened a new window in my mind. I am pretty sure that this article came from a reliable site because all my other current events are also from that site and it is made for kids. So, if I should recommend this article to any one, I would recommend it to all the animal lovers that are interested in learning about a life cycle and all adventures that an ants goes through.
Word:
Hypothesis: A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.
Chemical: A substance with a distinct molecular composition that is produced by or used in a chemical process.
Site:
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20090513/Note2.asp
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