Word: formic
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Rendering the captive queens edible requires little culinary art. The ants are toasted in their own fat on thin clay roof tiles over a wood fire, then salted lightly. Since they contain formic acid, a natural preservative, they remain unspoiled in the markets, where they are displayed in large fiber baskets...
...soon after the plane landed in Salisbury, to take up happy residence in one of its wings. Central's mechanics scattered, and to replace them, the airline called in a local beekeeper, Jack Garrett. Blow smoke or gas into the wing, he advised. No, said the airline engineers: formic acid from the dead bees might hurt the metal or the rubber on the gas tanks...
...atomic-test explosion at Alamogordo, a desert colony of Camponotus vicinus has suffered mutation into a race of creatures more than ten feet long. They are discovered by Myrmecologist Edmund Gwenn after two people disappear in the desert and two others are found dead with their carcasses full of formic acid...
...scientists dissolved a little ferrous sulphate and carbon dioxide in pure water, enclosed it in a specially designed glass cell, and exposed it to a high-energy helium ion beam from a cyclotron. Analysis showed that a little of the carbon dioxide combined with water to produce formic acid and formaldehyde. Scientists have long known that solutions of formaldehyde sometimes turn into sugar...
...have drowned [TIME, Aug. 28] had they realized the potentialities of jet propulsion. As a boy in western Washington, I used to toss large black ants into our quarry swimming hole. After a few preliminary struggles to orient themselves to the nearest shore, they would squirt a jet of formic acid from a convenient rear port and be shot six or eight inches nearer safety. Not being streamlined (and rudderless), these insects would re-aim and repeat the process until they were able to scramble out. Perhaps our Western ants are just smarter...