It may not be quite as telling as photons beingboth particles and waves , but a new study has found ants can combine features of liquids and solids for endure sinister situations such as inundation . The observations of how they carry are providing clues to how we can make materials up to of self - assembly .
Earlier this month a remarkable video appeared of flack antsforming a raftto survive floods . The ants reach this feat by secrete an oily substance that allow them to float above the water . Ant quislingism is also observed in the formation ofload - hold bridges . However , a paper inNature Materialsdemonstrates that this is only the start of ant collective ingenuity .
DrAlberto Fernandez - Nievesof the Georgia Institute of Technology put thousands of ant into a rheometer , a machine that measures the wayliquids or semi - liquids respond to forces .
Both last and dead ants were tested at dissimilar velocity , but at the right pressure it did n’t matter . The alive emmet move as if they were dead when force to flow through the rheometer . The ants bear as anon - Newtonian fluid , letting go of each other under pressing so that they flowed more easily .
“ It ’s not unlike cetchup , " tell Fernandez - Nieves , in astatement . " The harder you squeeze , the easier it flows . But with emmet , this happens much more dramatically than with ketchup . " This contrasts with some other non - Newtonian fluid , such as mixture ofcornflour and body of water , that flow less easily under pressure .
“ Ants seem to have an on / off switch in that they let go for sufficiently large applied force out , order co - author DrDavid Huin the assertion . “ Despite wanting to be together , they rent go and behave like a fluid to foreclose getting injured or killed . ” The team demonstrate the same effect in a video .
The flack ants give way before a penny as it fall , self - assembling once it has pass them . Credit : Georgia Tech .
“ This is the hallmark of viscoelastic behavior,”saidFernandez - Nieves . “ The ant exhibit a springy - reply when probed at short times , but behave fluid - the likes of at longer time . ”
These capacities are of more than curio value . Hu show out inanother picture , “ Imagine I have glass window and I confuse a brick through it … Imagine if the windowpane was made of ants … The glassful shards would reform , self - heal , reserve the brick to happen and then form a complete novel window … This is the dream of combat-ready subject . ”
make piece of furniture out of ants has some obvious drawbacks , but Fernandez - Nieves noted that standardized behavior is take in in polymers , and it may be potential to produce materials that replicate these self - healing behaviors . Whether this is an entirely a good idea is a dissimilar matter , of class . Hu yield the example of theliquid metal T-1000fromTerminator 2as the variety of capacities being sought , something some people appeardisturbingly close to achievingat home .
