“Wasted”? They’re literally figuring out how the world around us works!
I wonder what percentage of these weird studies that make us ask “why are they spending money on that?” are being done by students working on theses and doctorates and whatnot, and what percentage are non-scholastic institutions asking for government funds to see if you can teach penguins to French kiss.
To be clear this is probably someone’s PhD thesis and they basically do it on their own dime with grants and such. It’s not like the dod playing with bugs for some reason.
If you ever want to do anything socially unacceptable, just say it’s for science.
Remember, we do what we must because we can.
It’s for the good of all of us, except the ones who had their legs clipped off.
Look at you still talking while there’s science to do!
I’ve heard in psychology it’s the opposite, which is kind of unfortunate. Like one guy I follow on YouTube talked about wanting to research something (can’t remember what, but take something like pedophilia) but was told that if he went forward with it he’d be viewed as one because people often want to research what they’re familiar with. I personally find that a bit more important to study than whether ants track their steps, but I’m just one person 🥲
Research for the sake of research is how we make discoveries we never thought possible.
The best discoveries are the ones that start with somebody going, “Huh, that’s weird…”
Absolutely! The mentality that it’s “wasted time and resources” is exactly how you extinguish progress, invention, and ultimately the ability to innovate existing tools.
This one’s not even that far out there. Understanding how ants think has direct applications! Ants must take many thousands of steps in a day; being able to count them precisely requires certain cognitive facilities we wouldn’t otherwise know existed. Next step: figure out how those things work with such simple cognition. Then apply that to self-organizing robots and use them to cure cancer or something.
Get stilted losers
-Science
Science is basically journalism about the natural world. If ants have exposed themselves to a laughable scandal, it’s only a matter of time before we’ve nailed their asses to a wall
What is this? Stilts for ants?
I wonder if they happen to use base 10?
I’d guess base 6 with their 6 legs.
I wonder if they’re smart to count, or stupid to walk past the food.
Yes
Scientists should teach AI to be more like ants, maybe then it can finally do better math.
They could just teach the ants to be an AI like in a certain Tchaikovsky novel.
I hope someone glues stilts to their legs then. What. It’s for science. Because we can’t figure out a better way to study how scientists get stilts glued to their legs.
Bleh, ants aren’t animals either way
