Tracking the Worms - Routines and Trails in the Soil

Over the pas few month single-blogs was involve with a another tracking project lead by the British Royal Soil Society. The focus of the project is the investigation of the upper and middle soil layer around Britain to determine the advocational capacity of wildlife. It has been acknowledge how important these layers are in the wider context of the life cycle documentation.

We have been tracking earthworms as the main regenerator of soils. They are essential for the quality of the soil basically eating their way through the ground leaving behind healthier material. This is in the growint traditionof animal tracking projects. For earlier stories see HERE.


Image taken form Wikipedia / The common Earth Worm.


Image taken form envirosci / Different types of soils allow for different digging speeds.

For the tracking we have been working with a modified bird tracker, a mini responder worked into a plaster. This flat design of the technology bit has no impact on the worms capacity to digg his way through the tunnels. The antenna is the only element that sticks out but is very flexible. This pat is essential to allow for good communication under ground.


Images taken form Arturs clip art and superstock / The tiny tracker plaster used in the study. Here 'Flippy' models the unintrusive investigation device. She seemed very happy and wiggled this way and that way.

Great data has been received from this ongoing investigation. We now have a record depth of 22 meter that one of the worms 'diggy' has reached on the 21 of March. It has been unknown that worms do actually dig very deep after a good night out. Another worm 'speedy' has managed to underpass a road up north in the Willisher Area in just 5.5 days. Given the fact that it is difficult to navigate underground 'Speedy' has shown a tremendously impressive performance.


Image taken from Transit Newton Abbot / Some of the participating back gardens had to be dugg up in order to reclaim the rather expensive tracking equipment. However most people were happy to contribute something to an important environmental assessment.

However, the activity is not only restricted to underground some of the worms like 'birdy' have a history of overground activities, including climbing and flying. 'Birdy must have been picked up by a bird or something. His record showed a rapid movement up to a hight of 8.4 meter above soil level. Her name should actually be 'Lucky', she escaped and dugg in right after. She is now at a constant depth of around 30 cm.

Some of the study results are also expected to find their way into the development of the the lastest Worms 3D game.


Image taken form application for us / Guess this is the new bird strategy.

The Origin of Architecture - Nest Building

Architectural anthropology is described as: ‘At the end of the sixties, in the course of the so-called 'crisis of modern architecture' a movement of architectural theoreticians greatly stimulated by Amos Rapoport's 'Built Form and Culture' (1969) began to widen their horizon into the ethnology of architecture’ (Egentre, 1990).
In this sense it is the research into the history of architecture. Together with an illustration of five lines of architectural evolution it is presented as a comprehensive body of work into the understanding of how architecture developed into a technological sophisticated science. But essentially it argues that as long as humans (even great apes) had a urge to adjust the environment to suit specific needs.
Interesting to me seems the argument that architecture can be traced back to the nest building of great apes. However this will definitely be challenged with questions around design and the idea of a discipline of architecture as opposed to individual temporal structures. However this is probably an argumentation of modernist understanding of the ‘plan’. Nevertheless I would argue that between temporal structures of ‘night beds’ constructed by apes and a detailed concept of space and time lies a big gap. It might be down to a few million years of evolution, I don’t know.
The argument is logic, however I would remind that a lot of species build nests or construct temporal structures. Even more beyond the nest usually animals have a clear concept of space and the idea of ‘owned space’ in the sense of a territorial behavior. This territory is marked for example by a black bird singing or a cat spraying. In this context the argument might look different.


Image by Nold Egenter - The plate indicates a Macro-Theory of the Evolution of Habitat and Architecture and at the same time the Evolution of Culture

For the argumentation and presentation of architectural project a lot of leaps an crazy combinations are undertaken. And recently nests have seen a rise in popularity, but I have not heard H&dM arguing for their Olympic stadium that the shape is the origin of architecture. However it would fit.


Image taken from creative class - the bird nest at night