Little Fish: Ant Tower

No Such Thing As A Fish

In this bonus episode of Little Fish, hosts Dan Schreiber, Anna Tyshinsky, and Andy Hunter-Murray dive into a curated batch of listener-submitted facts spanning science,

Key takeaways

• Trent Thesons calculated that all ants on Earth could theoretically stretch to the moon approximately 52,000 times if stacked head-to-tail.
• Scott Lucas highlighted Humansville, Missouri, named after Judge James Human in the 1830s, alongside the nearby town of Halfway.

Main topics

• Ant tower height calculation
• Missouri town naming origins

Notable quotes

You'll have to just keep going. And that's a hell of a climb.

Conclusion

The episode delivers a highly engaging mix of scientific curiosity and pop culture

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) you Speaker 2 (0:06) I don't know. Speaker 2 (0:13) Hello, and welcome to another episode of Little Fish. This is our bonus Monday show where we put down our favorite facts from the last seven days and we get to sit back and enjoy all of your facts that have been sent through to us via podcast at QI.com. Very exciting batch of facts here. My name is Dan Schreiber. I'm sitting here with Anna Tyshinsky and Andrew Hunter-Murray. Let's do it. What have we got? Here's Speaker 1 (0:37) one from Trent Thesons. And Trent says, I was listening to a little fish episode. There was a story mentioned about ants climbing on top of each other to reach the moon. It made me curious about how far every ant on Earth could actually reach if they all joined in together. Keep Speaker 2 (0:52) talking. Yes. Speaker 1 (0:54) Yep. And Trent's done an A4 page's worth of calculations with which he has concluded that all ants on Earth could theoretically stretch from the Earth to the moon approximately 52,000 times. Wow. Now Speaker 3 (1:07) that Speaker 2 (1:07) would be a strong... tower. You could climb that. Could you climb? I think you would knock the ants away as you were putting your hand in to get grip. You'll Speaker 3 (1:15) knock Speaker 2 (1:15) some Speaker 3 (1:15) away, Dan, but Speaker 2 (1:16) there are 52,000. So you think there would be enough? Yeah. You'd have to just keep going. And that's Speaker 3 (1:21) a Speaker 2 (1:21) hell of a climb. Wait, why? What do Speaker 3 (1:22) you Speaker 2 (1:22) mean? Once you stop, they Speaker 1 (1:23) start all falling away? Once you Speaker 3 (1:25) stop, you fall as well. Yeah. Oh yeah, okay. You'll Speaker 1 (1:28) need Speaker 3 (1:28) to bring some food, you'll need to bring a picnic and they're going to be very interested in that as well. Yes. Speaker 1 (1:33) No jam on Speaker 2 (1:35) this spaceship. I think that's what would happen. It would reinforce the power of the tower because they would consume you into it and you would be stuck inside. And then the next person climbing is like, oh, that feels very like a human head. No time to stop. Keep going. And it's just a column of humans that eventually become... What? Speaker 1 (1:53) So it's like a weird horror film where everyone keeps on going up looking for the last person who tried to climb to the moon. Speaker 3 (1:58) That is pretty distressing. Speaker 1 (1:59) It's an upsetting film. Speaker 3 (2:01) Yeah, that's a horror film. Also, Speaker 1 (2:02) what's going to happen to Earth now it's got no ants left? Speaker 3 (2:05) Probably bad stuff. Speaker 1 (2:06) I expect so. Speaker 3 (2:07) But a lot of birds will go a bit peckish, won't they? Literally peckish. Speaker 1 (2:11) Good point. They're going to jeopardize the tower. The birds are the enemy, I think. Yeah, you're going to Speaker 3 (2:15) need some big bird netting around this tower to ensure it doesn't just become a roving buffet for all the birds in the world. Well, this is the sort of stuff that gets the fans so excited. It's the what-ifs of sci-fi, isn't it? Yeah, it's the plot Speaker 2 (2:27) twist that the person climbing the tower has to come across. Oh God, there's a hole in the bird netting. The tower is being eaten now. Speaker 3 (2:33) Am I going to make it to the moon? Why are you going to the moon? Speaker 2 (2:39) Because the ant tower ends there. Speaker 3 (2:41) Because it's there. The moon does, of course, orbit Earth, so the bottom of the tower is going to have to be on wheels of some kind, isn't it? Speaker 1 (2:47) Yeah, that's a really Speaker 3 (2:48) good Speaker 2 (2:48) point. God, that's such a good visual. Are we left towing Speaker 3 (2:51) the moon with the ants? I'm not saying we can't. Gosh, Speaker 1 (2:56) yes, and the Earth's spinning as well. That does complicate things rather, doesn't it? Speaker 3 (3:00) Trent, when you sent your email, did you think it would lead to this level of high-end practical discussion? I'm actually disappointed Speaker 2 (3:07) in Trent that he didn't work out this for us beforehand. Speaker 3 (3:10) There's a second Speaker 2 (3:11) page to the email, don't worry. Okay, let me read one out here. This is from Scott Lucas. Scott Lucas has discovered that there is a small town in Missouri... called Humansville. That's so cool. It's a great name. He says, on top of Humansville already sounding like the lady doth protest too much, it has the added quirkiness of actually being named for a Judge James Human in the 1830s. Thank you, Andy. So not really named for humans, but rather one specific human who incidentally also has a name that could be read as an imperative sentence. Judge James Human. which I know you like and describes his job since judge human judged humans. Oh, Speaker 1 (3:53) that's good. That is very good. Yes, Speaker 2 (3:58) it's very nice. I looked into other local names of the area just to see if there are any cool names. There is a town there called Halfway. Okay. It is halfway between the Bolivar and Buffalo. And if they'd called Speaker 3 (4:13) it Destination instead. They could have been the biggest city in the area by now. Really good Speaker 1 (4:18) point. Speaker 3 (4:18) Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:18) that's true. In a way, Speaker 1 (4:20) everywhere is halfway, isn't it? Everywhere is halfway between somewhere and somewhere else. You're always halfway there. Speaker 2 (4:28) Whoa. Not if you're at the bottom of the Ant Tower. Exactly. Okay, we're still on that. Speaker 1 (4:34) Okay. Oh, Speaker 3 (4:36) that's very good. This one is from Simon Burford, and I love it. Apologies if anyone has pointed this out before, but in episode 151... You talk about Stella Rimmington being the head of MI5. We remember her. She died some years ago now, but she's Speaker 1 (4:50) a Speaker 3 (4:50) really famous early head of MI5. She Speaker 2 (4:52) wrote a book about it as well. She was one of the first publicly named heads, wasn't she? And she Speaker 3 (4:56) wrote lots of spy novels once she'd retired, obviously. Anyway, you surmise in this episode, 151, which was nine years ago, that she may not be the real head of the agency, but just a front for the real person in charge. Okay? Oh, yeah. I can't believe. that none of you pointed out that Stella Remington is an almost exact anagram of Remington Steele, who was a fictional character played by Pierce Brosnan, who pretended to be the head of a detective agency while it was secretly run by someone else. Coincidence? Probably, says Simon. Speaker 2 (5:32) Isn't that Speaker 3 (5:33) nuts? Yeah. So I had never heard of this series before, but it was Pierce Brosnan's first... big break really. It was a big TV series in America. Speaker 2 (5:40) I used to watch Speaker 3 (5:40) it in Hong Kong. Did you? Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:41) yeah. Stella Remington, Remington Steele. Remington Steele. Speaker 3 (5:45) That Speaker 1 (5:45) is weird. Speaker 3 (5:45) It's Speaker 2 (5:46) a bit Speaker 3 (5:46) mad. So basically there's this detective, she's not getting any work. She makes up a boss of the detective agency and business picks up. He's called Remington Steele. And then Pierce Brosnan is a thief who turns up, pretends to be Remington Steele and they solve crimes together. And Stella Remington. was working as a spy when this was going out. So that must have been very weird for her. And she was a model for M as Judi Dench in the James Bond films, which is when Pierce Brosnan first played James Bond. Speaker 2 (6:15) That's great. That's wonderful. Speaker 1 (6:17) I know. Speaker 3 (6:17) And Stella Rimmington's father, guess what industry he worked in? The steel industry. What's happening? Oh, Speaker 1 (6:25) stop building that ant tower. We've got to get off this earth. Speaker 3 (6:30) Can I just tell you the mad little afterlife of the show? Because the show got cancelled. Brosnan got offered the role of Bond after the show was cancelled. And then work got out that he was being offered the role of Bond. Interest in Remington Steel exploded. He then was offered a new series of Remington Steel, which his contract said he had to take. No, really? He'd done all the photos to be James Bond. He was in. He was about to have the champagne to toast his new life as James Bond. And his agent called and said, I'm so sorry, you have to do more Remington Steel, because that's what the contract says. So the Bond producers