Ant+Brains

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Required materials

 * Microscope
 * Slides
 * Ants
 * Rubbing alcohol
 * Digital camera
 * Tweezers
 * One or two small glass vials
 * Microscope camera adapter
 * Ants

Estimated Experiment Time
Several hours

Step-By-Step Procedure

 * **1.** Begin by placing an ant in each vial, using tweezers. Generally, you will only need about 3-4 vials so you can choose the best specimen.
 * **2.** Fill each vial ¼ of the way full with rubbing alcohol, completely covering the ant. Let sit for at least one hour but no longer than an hour and a half. This will prepare the ants for the photograph by making them somewhat translucent so their brains and nervous systems will show up on the camera.
 * **3.** While the ants are soaking in the alcohol, use this time to set up your microscope camera adapter with your microscope.
 * **4.** When the ants have finished soaking in the alcohol solution, remove each ant with the tweezers and place them carefully on their own slide.
 * **5.** View each ant with the microscope, determining which ant is the best specimen. You’ll want to choose the one where the brain and nervous system are the most noticeable.
 * **6.** Begin photographing the best specimen, taking care to photograph all parts of the ant. Try using different magnifications to produce different results. Since you are using a digital camera, you can take plenty of pictures and eliminate all but the best pictures using your computer at a later time.