I Know Many Things Have Become Miniaturised,

but I find this totally fascinating,

1,000 hairy wood ants will be fitted with tiny radio receivers, each with its own code to follow the movements of each ant, the three year experiment will take place at the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate, Derbyshire, with the receivers attached, scientists will be able to examine how the ants communicate with each other in their colonies, Samuel Ellis, a biologist from the University of York, who will be carrying out the research, said: 'this research is about trying to find out how the ants communicate and commute between the vast network of nests and how they travel in this environment',


amazing in itself but for me it is that the size of the receivers is so small, do the receivers have batteries that last 3 years? as an aside the northern hairy wood ant has an international near-threatened conservation status with the two main populations in England found in the Peak District (including Longshaw) and in the North York Moors, so no going to pick an ant up to look at the receiver!