Entomologists use a particle accelerator to image ants at scale

Automated excerpt

The ants that animators once morphed into googly-eyed caricatures in films such as A Bug’s Life and Antz just received a meticulously precise anatomical reboot. Writing today in Nature Methods, an international team of entomologists, accelerator physicists, computer scientists, and biological-imaging specialists describe a new 3D atlas of ant morphology. Dubbed Antscan, the platform features micrometer-resolution reconstructions that lay bare not only the insects’ armored exoskeletons but also their muscles, nerves, digestive tracts, and needlelike stingers poised at the ready.

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