HN removed a leading "how", which in this case hurt the title. It's a fascinating research article -- the link itself is just a few paragraphs but it links to the full paper which is free!
What's cool is how the ants keep airbubbles around them so if you push the whole raft underwater, it turns into a ball and keeps an air bubble around it. Really amazing stuff!
Great talk, thank you! David Hu talking about how animals repel water: 1. ant rafts, water-repellent surfaces, surface tension 2. mosquitos vs water drops, 3. mammals shaking off water. Covers a lot of fascinating ground. (It's not a great quality video but he shows a lot of videos too which are mostly visible enough.) David seems to have qualifications in biology, mathematics and engineering!
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[ 7.7 ms ] story [ 33.3 ms ] threadhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORPEL30Wrzk
What's cool is how the ants keep airbubbles around them so if you push the whole raft underwater, it turns into a ball and keeps an air bubble around it. Really amazing stuff!
"When using mandibles, the ants are careful to avoid hurting each other."
Not too much ouch then.
(The narration can be a little campy but I think HN would enjoy)