Video of mother nature's engineering ability (ant's nest)

[Dave Chase]

http://digg.com/video/what-you-get-when-you-pour-molten-aluminum-into-an-ant-hill

Amazing 'hard copy' of an ant's nest.

I first thought of Aliens and SciFi like things, but it also made me think of old fashion 'epic' level drow adventure.

Anyway, this was more about sharing than anything.

If anyone has some other cool images of what engineering feats are done by mother nature, I would love to see/linked to them.

Dave Chase

 

[alex_greene]

Western Australia's compass termites, aka magnetic termites, create mounds which look like tombstones, always pointing north/south:-

The reason? The Sun. In the morning and evening, the exposed parts of the nests present their widest profiles to the sun to absorb as much heat as possible to keep the nest warm. Closer to noon, when the sun's rays are almost vertical, the exposed vanes present their slimmest profiles, to minimise overexposure and keep the nest from overheating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ife17BYZ54c

Evolution. It's amazing.