ants on stilts and Harry Porter's Relay Computer

Stilts confirm ants count their paces

Drs Matthias Wittlinger and Harald Wolf at University of Ulm, Germany, and Prof Rudiger Wehner in Zurich, altered the legs on a group of ants to test the idea that they use stride length [count, that is, times imagined length].

Some had pig bristles glued on to their legs, while others had legs shortened by amputation.

First some marched on normal legs to a feeder, where they were placed on stilts and sent home.

The stiltwalkers misjudged the 10-metre distance back and overshot the nest entrance.

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Harry Porter's Relay Computer, and more, including the chitinous clattering of relay mouthpart^Hs. (Actually it's much like a sewing machine.)

Oh, poo: Main Memory (32K x 8bits, static RAM chip).