It's really refreshing to see papers like this one out in Science this week. Papers seem to always rely on more and more complex mechanisms and techniques, but every once in a while, someone gets a Science paper by putting ants on stilts.



Apparently desert ants figure out how far they traveled by counting their steps (pheromones apparently don't work as well in the heat and sand). If you increase or decrease the length of their legs, they get confused and over or underestimate the distance back to the nest. New Scientist has a lay report and video.

Ha! Can you imagine being the student who has to anesthetize these ants and attack the stilts to the thing's legs?

And you know those obnoxios pro-CO2 commercials that claim it's some kind of wonder fertilizer that plants love? Well not any more, the studies that suggested a benefit to higher CO2 in the atmosphere are debunked.

Finally, Science is just full of wacky stuff this week. Check out whale-sniffing dogs (the last story). Apparently drug-sniffing rottweilers can be trained to detect floating whale poop at great distances. Who would have thought?