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67 Comments
- diggyduggle, on 06/19/2009, -2/+20Dugg for the title. About goddamn time science!
- dsmx, on 06/19/2009, -0/+13I thought the most interesting thing was the suggestion that queen ants dream.
- ghatid, on 06/19/2009, -0/+10Dugg for answering something I've wondered my whole life!
- iticu, on 06/19/2009, -0/+10The difference being that the queen ant has a purpose.
- Acesolid, on 06/19/2009, -0/+8God save the (ant) queen!
- dunderballer, on 06/19/2009, -0/+8FTA: "Amazingly, queens can live six years before they die of old age. Whereas workers live six months to a year and then die of old age or some accident during foraging."
Maybe the discrepancy has more to do with the occupational hazards faced by the worker ants. They need ant OSHA and ant labor unions to negotiate longer breaks for naps. - Dumbwin, on 06/19/2009, -2/+9This reminds me of the British Monarchy.
- TheTikiTony, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7Why does common sense say this? Do single-celled organisms sleep? Where do we draw the line at where sleep starts? If you didn't ask yourself one of these three questions after reading through these replies, you might be a sheeple.
- BeforeSputnik, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6It's english for nap. and by "english" i mean, people from England say it.
- iEATcatFOOD, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6Because humans can think.
- copypastry, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6Ironically this was the ONE bit of knowledge that was keeping humanity from developing cold fusion.
This guy deserves the Nobel. - dsmx, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6so black ants don't get christmas?
- Surfrock66, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5Finally, I've been waiting for so long!
- MelissaOfTroy, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5Ants are pretty interesting. They never get into traffic jams and can lift 50 times their weight. Interesting that they have heirarchical sleep patterns.
Also, FTA "Queen fire ants fall into relatively long, deep sleeps and kip for an average of nine hours every day." What does kip mean? - DouglasQ, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5What ant snitch leaked these secrets?
- iticu, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5The question mark acts as a full stop as well.
- Shogun213, on 06/19/2009, -1/+6Masturbate
- dijkstra22, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4Anyone who is completely atheist is just as bad as a firm believer that a god exists. That being said, if one accepts the evidence presented to them, one probably has to conclude that the chances that there is some ultracomplex supernatural being controlling the world are pretty close to zero. Having this belief, I call myself an atheist, but an atheist only in the sense that I described. I don't reject that there could be a God, but I doubt it intensely.
- JMDMD, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4haha "tirany"
also "work in a perfect communism" - michaelrsa, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4Because ants are about as close to hive minded as you can get.
- TheTikiTony, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3You're quite the troll Dumbwin.
- CanceledCzech, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3I came here intending to make a "thank god, about time science!" comment, thinking I was original....
- DeathRay2K, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3The traffic jam thing really isn't anything special, large crowds of people don't have traffic jams either... What changes that with cars is that they are damaged by bumping into each other.
- GregLoire, on 06/19/2009, -3/+6I took numerous psychology and anthropology classes in college, learning all about sleep and evolution, and I still cannot imagine what the evolutionary advantage is of every animal on the planet being required to shut down conscious cognitive functioning lest they face death by insomnia. I've never really bought the arguments of conserving energy, as more hours awake just means more hours gathering/hunting for food (though stuff like bear hibernation through winter makes a lot of sense). Plus, lying perfectly still and conserving energy does not fulfill the requirement for sleep. It seems like the evolutionary advantage of not being eaten while dozing off would far outweigh this benefit anyway.
I am agnostic, and I consider myself a rational person who relies on the findings of science as much as possible, but there's a small part of me that's completely convinced that 100 years from now we're going to learn that sleep is what allows for some universal life force to charge up the cognition of living creatures across the entire galaxy in some central data center, or something equally ***** insane, and it's going to seem so obvious once we figure it out that we're going to wonder how we were never obsessed with the mystery of why each living creature must shut down all functioning and leave itself vulnerable in order to continue to live.
Yeah, sure, laugh all you want, but seriously, what is the advantage of an ant having to sleep? - Dumbwin, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3Nice theory, but no, the purpose of human sleep hasn't been explained either.
- ohnooo456, on 06/20/2009, -0/+3Digg users kip 9 hours a day too.
- barbapapa78, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3That does not make much sense, we have a brain smart enough that we realize we should not wonder around in a pitch black forrest. And why would we be safer by basically being unconscious.
- EntropyFan, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3I think the jury is still out on that one.
- antdude, on 06/19/2009, -0/+3Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
- jba68, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2wow you indeed are a OU fan.... given your lack of realization the Horns are in Austin.
UT -arlington doesnt even field a football team - bazzarr, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2Reading the title I immediately thought they had found a really tiny Bed Bath & Beyond coupon for 20 percent off sheets in a mound.
- iEATcatFOOD, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2I can finally die now that I know the secrets of ant sleep!
- FlashBazbo, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2According to the news Queen Elizabeth is a bee, not an ant.
- FlashBazbo, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2These are Albanian ants.
- Contajeerus, on 06/20/2009, -0/+2"a single worker ant would take 250 naps each day"
That's me. - barbapapa78, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2I am going to try that next week; 250 one minute power naps every day.
- RutgerB, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2Do you think they dream of a white Christmas?
- po43292, on 06/19/2009, -1/+3How can the queens sleep with all those little ***** crawling all around them!
Also, I wonder if PETA would mind if Obama stepped one. "Got the sucker." - vspazv, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2They have a lot of wars with other colonies.
- Carlix, on 06/19/2009, -0/+2Damn I was making a sarcastic comment and I got dugg down because I didn't wrote the /s sign?
- GregLoire, on 06/19/2009, -1/+2That is not what I am saying at all. Ultimately it is science/data that will provide answers, not simply thinking about possibilities. Me sitting here coming up with crazy ideas does not teach us anything, no, and it certainly does not lead to any discoveries.
I am merely thinking about what science may teach us in the future. I am not asking anyone to take any leap of faith about what these discoveries may be. Note also that I said "a small part of me." If I were a gambling man placing a bet, no, there probably isn't anything supernatural about sleep. But that shouldn't stop people from wondering. - MtheoryX, on 06/20/2009, -0/+1Black ant stole my bike.
- daEvan, on 06/19/2009, -3/+4"George Yanev of the University of Texas in Arlington" Woot! I go there!
- TimtheTaxMan, on 06/19/2009, -0/+1@greg
Nor was I saying I agreed with you that sleep was somehow supernatural. The point is we don’t know. We are so limited by our narrow perceptions that we can only work with the little information that we have.
Some people out there are so consumed by an ideology that it blinds them to possibilities. Having an imagination and keeping an open mind are critical for our philosophical and scientific growth. Any ideas, no matter how crazy, should at least be allowed to air. If it is sound, people will listen, if not, we await the next one. - roddack, on 06/19/2009, -0/+1Boomer Sooner bitch! =D
- tsuki, on 06/19/2009, -0/+1But 50 times of nothing is still nothing.
- GregLoire, on 06/19/2009, -0/+1I'm the same way, dijkstra. I didn't mean for my post to imply that something crazy with sleep was likely. Just that it's something to wonder about.
- iEATcatFOOD, on 06/20/2009, -0/+1tirany
- Dumbwin, on 06/19/2009, -0/+0dijk ....What exactly is this "evidence" that leads you to conclude the chances are close to zero?.
Or are you simply saying you think the possibility is close to zero... -
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