Stream Your Event | Partners | Speakers CART ITEMS: - | CHECKOUT

Ants: The Invisible Majority with Dr. Brian Fisher

Watch Full Video | previews

Cal Academy: The Magic of Science

California Academy of Sciences

Info
Bio
Chapters
Preview
Download
Zoom In

Save the Ant, Save the Planet

11 min 06 sec

Add to Profile

Brian Fisher, entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences, delves into the world of taxonomy and ants by explaining his study of biodiversity in Madagascar.

Fisher shares the exciting new developments of DNA barcoding, AntWeb, and applications for smart phones to catalog and identify ants.
The Secret Life of Ants

04 min 19 sec

Add to Profile

Brian Fisher, entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences, seeks answers to mankind's societal problems by observing the social world of ants. In addition to cattle-herding, ants "invented farming 50 million years ago."
Watch Full Program

41 min 19 sec

Add to Profile

There are 6 comments on this program

Please or register to post a comment.

Previous FORAtv comments:

atlantiscats

Posted: 06.09.11, 11:02 AM

Dr. Fisher brought these destructive ants into the U.S.? Are you nuts? Maybe I missed something in the longer version of this film, but there is a REASON you don't bring invasive species into our country (we already have the republicans!). I do love insects and even more I love watching them, but you don't bring these things here. I can only hope he had the brains to contain them and then kill them once he finished his study on them. I'm already fighting the Kudzu and new stink bugs from China here in Georgia.

nightlight

Posted: 11.01.09, 11:08 AM

Many thanks to Dr. Brian Fisher on this interesting and inspiring talk on what is indeed a family of the most abundant life form on earth, except for maybe microbes. I to can attest to the fact that most people have no interest in insects what so ever except of how to eradicate them from there homes, gardens and yards. I myself became interested in insects as a boy on my dads farm as I had the opportunity to observe a myriad of different species of insects,. their coloration, body structure and what they eat. Later I took entomology in 4-H and had the opportunity to learn to trap, classify and display my victims. I say victims because one actually gasses them in a jar. As I watched them struggle to escape the nauseous fumes within only to have their desperate attempts obstructed by a wall of glass, which I'm sure they could not comprehend, I could not help but to think of how people had gassed other people with even less indifference than I had for the life I was taking.. Though I am fully aware of the relationship of predator and pray of the animal kingdom from mammals to insects, the law of nature of eat or be eaten, there is something different about the taking of life for frivolous reasons, I feel the same way about the killing of animals for no other reason than to kill a unsuspecting animal for sport. I realize that I had been an accomplice in killing cattle and hogs for food, I am of the opinion that people would eat a lot less meat if they actually had to kill it themselves, and no doubt had participated in the demise of millions of insects when we sprayed the crops with insecticides, I could not help but feel a little pity for the hapless victims. I found that trapping, mounting and classifying the little critters involved more time than I had thought so by the time of the county fair I had not yet had my quota of incests to make up the display, but fortunately for me, not so fortunate for the month that found it's self in my clutches, I was able to complete the display only to discover, after I had registered it, that the months wings were flapping wildly, so much for a blue ribbon. All told it was a great summer and I will never forget the what I had learned, though I still think that close up photographs of moths, butterflies and other insects are a viable alternative.

IVirOrfeo

Posted: 10.06.09, 10:52 AM

Ants............................................. FTW

WilliamRobson

Posted: 08.30.09, 02:32 PM

I would like to see a google world speciemen. Where you can take a picture of a plant or animal and using scanning technology any person can take a picture with thier camera/phone and by using their color/shape and category can either pinpoint or offer several options to choose from for which the plant, animal or insect could be. This would enable people to learn more about their environment, but it would also allow for an wikipedia like colaberation in understanding what lives where.

raymond dash

Posted: 08.29.09, 04:54 AM

terrifec ants really are interesting creatures

realtalk

Posted: 08.10.09, 07:43 PM

36000 views and no comments?!?! This is incredible!