Science Friday Building a digital ant gallery, from the ground up
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Mar 19, 2026 Dr. Julian Katzke, a postdoc at the Smithsonian who built the AntScan 3D ant imaging pipeline during his PhD, discusses making high-resolution, micrometer-scale X-ray scans of thousands of ants. He explains the fast synchrotron scanning setup, the stunning anatomical detail revealed, and how the open dataset can power science, art, and AI-driven research.
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Mandible Diversity Reveals Ant Ecology
- Ant mouthparts vary hugely and reflect ecological roles, making them a rich target for evolutionary study.
- Julian Katzke focused on mandible shape across species, noting extreme forms like army ant soldiers with fish-hook mandibles that lock onto prey.
Synchrotron CT Reconstructs 3D Ant Anatomy
- AntScan uses synchrotron X-ray computed tomography to reconstruct 3D volumes from many X-ray slices.
- The technique yields grayscale tomography slices that can be rendered into detailed 3D models and colored for visualization.
Use Synchrotron Plus Automation For High-Throughput Scans
- Use a synchrotron micro-CT rather than hospital CTs to image tiny invertebrates because hospital scanners lack needed resolution.
- Combine the synchrotron with an automated sample-exchange robot and high-speed camera to enable high-throughput scans.