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Ants and Cryogenics

Pictured above: Official ant cryogenic chamber.

Purpose: Cryogenics has become one of the vastly growing new technologies in the world of science today. The purpose of this experiment is to see if it is possible to freeze ants in the hope that they may be revived upon a later date and therefore extending their lives.

Hypothesis: It is the hypothesis of this experiment that due to the simple life structures of ants, they will be able to survive extended periods of time in the cryogenic chamber and will prove that cryogenics as a science is possible.

Equipment: Several pieces of equipment will be necessary for this experiment. A freezer should be adequate as a cryogenic chamber. Plastic cups should be used as the pods to place the ants in, Aluminum foil will also be used, water, a plate, and roughly 15 ants.

Procedure: The first step is to capture 15 ants, and place 5 into each cup, making sure to place the aluminum foil on top to prevent escape. Label the cups "A","B", and "C". With cup "A" place 5 ants in the cup, and place in the cryogenic chamber, after frozen, add water. With "B" place to ants in the cryogenic chamber, and finally with "C" place water onto the ants, and place in the chamber and allow to freeze. After an extended period of time, take the ants out of the cryogenic chamber, and place in warm water, to thaw them out, observe their actions.

Observations:

Pictured above: The three pods are shown here, with the cryogized ants in front. Ants are marked with dots due to poor picture quality.
Pod Chamber Number of Specimens Number of Survivors
Chamber "A": Ants frozen; water added after freezing. 5 0
Chamber "B": Ants frozen with out water added. 5 0
Chamber "C":Water added to ants then frozen. 5 0

Conclusion: Unfortunantly, none of the ants survived the cryogenic chamber. A fact that is open to debate as to the cause. One argument lies on the fact that it is the simple anatomy of the ant that leads to it's downfall. However, an experiment concerning crickets and cryogenics is Highly Unlikely. Also, the failure of this experiment should not be extended to prove the effectiveness of cryogenics as a science.

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