Watch ants get their brains fried by an iPhone 6

While studies have shown that radiation from phones can cause insects to behave abnormally, seeing it for yourself is something else. 

Portuguese tech blog Revista Galileu posted this video over the weekend which shows a nest of ants swarming over an iPhone 6 that’s otherwise doing nothing. Watch what happens at 0:07 when a call comes in. 

Save for one heroic ant who decides to buck the trend and go its own way, all the others seem to start losing their minds. 

While the jury’s still out on whether or not EHS (electro-hypersensitivity) in humans is actually a thing or not, a previous studies have shown that insects don’t mix well with the electro-magnetic frequencies generated by phones. 

In this 2014 study, a phone placed next to an ants’ nest caused the inhabitants to evacuate in a hurry. It’s thought that the radiation causes them pain, but if that’s the case then you’d expect the critters above to run away from the phone, not circle it like cyclists in a BBC sting. The same study also demonstrated that insects motor functions can be impaired by radiation. 

Phone EMFs have also been linked to, but not proven to be the cause of, colony collapse disorder, a phenomenom which causes honeybees to evacuate their nests en masse. 

We’re not hardcore vegans here by any stretch, but we can’t help but feel sorry for these ants. Unless phones turn out to be the insect equivalent of the black monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey and they’re now solving equations, it seems like the ants are not having the best time in the world. 

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