Study: Ants Trained to Detect Cancer
Feb 5, 2023 20:52:39 GMT -5
Post by leilani on Feb 5, 2023 20:52:39 GMT -5
Study: Ants Trained to Detect Cancer
BY BEN BARTEE 1:17 PM ON FEBRUARY 05, 2023
Study: Ants Trained to Detect Cancer
Joe MacGown
Publishing their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers successfully trained ants within ten minutes to sniff out tumors.
Via News Medical:
In this first-of-its-kind proof-of-concept study, the researchers remarkably demonstrated that ants could detect cancer in a whole organism. In this study, they used a total of 70 ants. However, 35 ants were more than enough to uncover a significant difference between the tumor and tumor-free samples. Based on the final study results, 24 ants would have served the cause.
On average, researchers spent ~10 minutes conditioning a single ant. They performed memory tests after 15 minutes of completing the conditioning test, and it fetched the first discriminating results in ~37 minutes.
They might not be much to behold at first blush, and the layperson’s interest in ants mostly dies in childhood after torching them in the hot summer sun under a magnifying glass. Mine did but was renewed recently.
Ants are fascinating creatures with freakish physical capacities and a sophisticated stratified social structure that mirrors human society in many ways.
Some interesting facts about ants:
They have no self-interest or self-preservation mechanism. They will die for the health of the colony — whether in war or during reproduction — without hesitation.
Fire ants cause $6.7 billion in damages in the United States each year.
An ant can bear 50 times its own body weight (making it the strongest creature pound for pound in the world).
The trap-jaw ant can run at speeds exceeding 140 mph.
link
BY BEN BARTEE 1:17 PM ON FEBRUARY 05, 2023
Study: Ants Trained to Detect Cancer
Joe MacGown
Publishing their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers successfully trained ants within ten minutes to sniff out tumors.
Via News Medical:
In this first-of-its-kind proof-of-concept study, the researchers remarkably demonstrated that ants could detect cancer in a whole organism. In this study, they used a total of 70 ants. However, 35 ants were more than enough to uncover a significant difference between the tumor and tumor-free samples. Based on the final study results, 24 ants would have served the cause.
On average, researchers spent ~10 minutes conditioning a single ant. They performed memory tests after 15 minutes of completing the conditioning test, and it fetched the first discriminating results in ~37 minutes.
They might not be much to behold at first blush, and the layperson’s interest in ants mostly dies in childhood after torching them in the hot summer sun under a magnifying glass. Mine did but was renewed recently.
Ants are fascinating creatures with freakish physical capacities and a sophisticated stratified social structure that mirrors human society in many ways.
Some interesting facts about ants:
They have no self-interest or self-preservation mechanism. They will die for the health of the colony — whether in war or during reproduction — without hesitation.
Fire ants cause $6.7 billion in damages in the United States each year.
An ant can bear 50 times its own body weight (making it the strongest creature pound for pound in the world).
The trap-jaw ant can run at speeds exceeding 140 mph.
link