Chemistry 9 1/10/10 Cyrus Adamiyatt
Poison-taster ants help save colonies
This article tells of an element of an ant’s lifestyle that helps save its colonies. These ants have evolved in order to help combat poison. When it gets cold and ants find themselves out of food, they often enter homes looking for something to eat. In reaction to this homeowners often put out poison to kill the ants. Ants use three tactics to fight poison and famine, and one particularly interesting is sacrificing some ants as poison-tasters. This same tactic can be used to distribute food quickly after a famine, while guarding against sickness. Researchers from the University of the West of England discovered this through experimentation ants. They housed the ants and gave them no food or water for 48 hours. During the famine ants that had normally been active stayed in place to conserve energy and food. When working ants needed a boost food was shared through mouth to mouth regurgitation. The ants known as “living silos” that tested the food could act as both testers for food toxicity and to store food. When the famine ended 95% of ants were fed within the first 30 minutes, but the system of food distribution through living silos meant that the food was mixed and diluted lowering the chance of poison.
This article can relate to humanity because many people have problems with ant infestation and now it is known that poison will not necessarily take care of the colonies that have made your house their home.
I thought that this article was very well-written with the use of good vocabulary, and very well summarized. This was a long topic that could have been made into a long and confusing article. Instead the author was able to keep the article to an adequate length, but still teach everything in a way that is understood. I enjoyed reading this article and I have to say that it was very well-written and had few noticeable flaws in any aspect of the article.
Viegas, Jennifer. "Poison-taster ants help save colonies." www.msnbc.com MSNBC, Jan. 2010. Web. 10 Jan. 2010.
This was a very insightful article review. Three things i like about it were how it relates to humans and insect infestation, the interesting topic about tiny little creatures people normally stomp on without thinking about it, and the detail in the story.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that could be better was Cyrus telling us about all three tactics instead of just one. I didn't feel like I was getting the entire story. Another thing that needed improvement was the amibiguity of the closing statement of the first paragraph. It was pretty difficult to understand.
One thing i learned was that ants have learned to adapt to the traps that we set for them, and will remember that next time i see ants carrying away a crumb
Cyrus, you did a very good review, I quite enjoyed the topic and I found your review easy to read. I agree with you that the article used some very good vocabulary, and I also think that this article will be helpful for people who have ant infestations. However you could have been a little more elaborate on your opinions and you could have mad your summary part of the review a tad shorter and more factual. I learned that by using famine against ants and then giving them food w poison you can kill most of them very effectively. All in all you did a great review and I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteCyrus picked a very interesting topic that is usually considered a pest. buy choosing this article he showed me a side of ants that I had never considered before. I also liked the details he added to make his review more clear.
ReplyDeleteHis review was easy to read yet he added a lot of description. He also did a good job describing the way the ants got around their hardships.
From this article I learned that ants a very well functioning community.
Niko Doukas
ReplyDeleteCyrus Adamiyatt Article
All I have to say is, these are the types of articles that I enjoy to read. Along with that I thought that Cyrus did a great job of reviewing it. There were many key aspects that contributed to the great review Cyrus had. Most importantly he dissected this large article and broke it down into smaller more reading manageable parts. Secondly I would like to point out that he broke it down even more. Not only did he break it into sections, he also took the most key and important facts and threw them all into one, very fun to read paragraph. The final section of Cyrus’s article that I enjoyed was his mixed views. He states that us humans have a problems with infestation and killing ants. This he explains is wrong. What he tells us is that we are just hurting ourselves by killing these ants because in the end it is killing the bigger, more imposing, colonized infestation such as roaches. Cyrus’s review was not in all honesty perfect though. The first of his flaws was proven in his first paragraph. Though it had great facts, I thought it was a little too lengthy. Secondly, he did not truly express his personal views on the article, how he felt after reading it. The one thing I have learned from this article, don’t kill ants!
I thought that this was a well presented article in general. However, one part that I thought was especially well presented was the way Cyrus made the article easy to read, and yet it was filled with facts at the same time. I also thought that this article is helpful to everyone, because everyone has ant problems at one time or another. However, Cyrus could have elaborated about how the article related to humanity, instead of only writing one line. Also, I would like to know how queens stayed alive during times of famine. I Learned just another reason as to why ants are one of the most hardy and adaptable creatures on the planet.
ReplyDelete