GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
In honor of my birdday, I decided to do something that was absolutely, completely inexplicable, especially considering my current state of er, employment: I spent money on a frivolous item. As if I don't already have enough pets already, with one click of my mouse, I added more 25 animals to my growing menagerie.
Yes, my peeps, I bought an ant farm!
But wait, this isn't just any ant farm, it's a NASA-inspired ant farm! The prototype for this ant farm actually orbited the earth in one of the shuttles in 2003 and was used to study how ants adapt to microgravity. As you can see in the picture, the farm is filled with a nutritious blue space-age goo that the ants eat as they tunnel around. Antworks also sells a super-nifty night light version. PZ would be so proud of me, don't you think?
Now I have to think of 25 names .. hrm.
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Comments
Phew! When someone mentioned that grrlscientist had bought the farm I was a little worried...
Posted by: Corkscrew | February 1, 2006 7:18 PM
I hadn't heard of this -- so cool!! and I bet the colony doesn't "smell" as I've heard parents complain of older-fangled ant farms!! You *are* allowed to splurge a little on your own b-day -- many happy!
Posted by: Pamela | February 1, 2006 8:01 PM
If you feel the urge to pick up more for gifts and whatnot, head over to American Science & Surplus (www.sciplus.com) and feel free to dig in. AS&S had these on surplus practically before they became available anywhere else, and they've got competitive prices. (Sorry: I'm an AS&S junkie, and I'm constantly referring folks to them solely because my house is already full of good science surplus. Their catalog is very desirable science porn in my household, and if I don't let my wife get first look at it, she reminds me why it's not a good idea to anger a woman who's taller than I am.)
Posted by: Paul Riddell | February 1, 2006 8:16 PM
We used to have a traditional ant-farm a few year back. Now I really want this kind!
Happy birthday! Sorry for being late, but I only get on IE a couple of times a week, and I cannot (still!) post comments here from FF.
Did you get my e-mail about LabLit?
Posted by: coturnix | February 1, 2006 9:36 PM
Alas, only one shuttle went up in 2003 - and it never came back.
Never heard if the ant farm actually survived re-entry.
Posted by: Duncan Young | February 1, 2006 9:38 PM
You may need one more ant....
Posted by: D. Rifkind | February 1, 2006 10:05 PM
I've got one of those, too! Didn't buy the ants, though - and with temps of -15 at the moment I think I'm going to have to wait till Spring to find me any ants:(
What I really want is a queen... not that I'm about to decimate an ant colony to get one.
Posted by: outeast | February 2, 2006 4:20 AM
outeast:
Having been gifted with a now-obsolete form of ant farm while still in school, I caution you about what ants to install. Many ant species go quiet in light and dig only in darkness. The genius of the developer of ant farms was to discover an ant species that would tunnel in daylight and then offer that species, sans queen, to stock it. Every month or so one would have to order more ants. I tried two species of ants native to the Williamsburg, Virginia area in my ant farm, and they tunneled very little. In other words, it's a racket. The local ants also did not like the "food" provided by the manufacturer.
Posted by: biosparite | February 2, 2006 2:40 PM
Better not give them names. Ants wear out relatively fast and the other ants start taking the corpses out with the rest of the debris. I always pity the last remaining ant, alone with no friends to touch its antennas with.
Posted by: Caio de Gaia | February 6, 2006 11:28 AM
three years ago in last time i lived in nyc, i went on an ant spree and brought back some colonies/partial colonies from central park, jamaica bay, cold spring, and Sam's Point, upstate.
i had Aphanogasters, Crematogasters, Paratrechina from an acorn, Brachymyrmex depilis. kept 'em in small 20cc vials, not too sophisticated! fed 'em honey, peanut butter, occasional fruitflies... all the colonies had eggs/larvae and the Aphano's, and Brachymyrmex's had a queen.
i was able to observe all kinds of behavior. each species SO different! the Brachys lasted almost two years, till things got hectic and i didn't get to water them too long...
miss 'em. maybe i'll get some more this summer
Posted by: barry | February 8, 2006 7:00 PM
Maybe you could get a queen and see if you can get a species of ant that parrots might ant with..and see if they ant with your ants. THAT would be very cool!
Posted by: Chardyspal | February 8, 2006 11:41 PM