Can Ants Use Telephones? Science Says, "I Dunno"
‘Operator? Can You Put Me Through to Ant Nest 251?’ - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com
The column is mostly about whether ants can hear through air, but I like this little historical nugget:
The experimenter was one Sir John Lubbock; he grew up on the estate next door to where the Darwins settled when they moved from London to the countryside. He was only eight when the Darwins arrived, an event that he remembered thus:
My father came home one evening in 1841, quite excited, and said he had a great piece of news for me. He made us guess what it was, and I suggested that he was going to give me a pony. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘it is much better than that. Mr. Darwin is coming to live at Down’. I confess that I was much disappointed.
Is Darwin better than a pony?
Comments
It's close but...no, pony trumps Darwin...barely.
dave-o sez: Agreed; even Dawkins would rather have the pony.
Posted by: kilian | July 1, 2009 07:31 PM