Humans have been digging deep holes for fun and profit since time began, and some animals have been doing it for way longer than that! And all of those holes can't hold a candle to some of the natural holes the Earth's got going on. And those are nothing compared to space, which some (Sam) would argue is the biggest hole of all!
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While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Stefan: @itsmestefanchin Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @slamschultz Hank: @hankgreen
If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links!
[Truth or Fail]
Band of holes: https://www.sciencealert.com/is-this-mile-long-strip-of-holes-an-ancient-inca-tax-system
Molecular drills: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.9b22595#
Roman skin cream: http://cenblog.org/artful-science/2013/01/14/ancient-roman-cosmetics-skin-cream-from-the-2nd-century-a-d/
[Fact Off]
Ant colony fallen through hole
Pictures in this paper: https://jhr.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=9096&display_type=element&element_type=4&element_id=43&element_name=
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s000400050022
https://www.popsci.com/story/science/ant-colony-escape/
https://jhr.pensoft.net/article/38972/
Star-nosed mole nose holes
The video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMz0Q7VbT9w
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/science/26bubble.html
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10834-star-nosed-mole-can-sniff-underwater-videos-reveal/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171120090051.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424084028.htm
[Ask the Science Couch]
Sinkholes / blue holes
https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/blue-holes-and-hurricanes/
http://geology.wlu.edu/intro3d/sinkhole/sinkhole.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/explore-worlds-deepest-blue-holes-180959977/
Flooded pit caves
Mariana trench
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/mariana-trench-deepest-place-earth/
Kola Superdeep Borehole
[Butt One More Thing]
Scorpion anus