People and Ants Alike? An Instinct to Swarm..
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/science/13traff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
-
-
- katevalentine
- added this
If you have ever observed ants marching in and out of a nest, you might have been reminded of a highway buzzing with traffic. To Iain D. Couzin, such a comparison is a cruel insult to the ants.
Americans spend a 3.7 billion hours a year in congested traffic. But you will never see ants stuck in gridlock.
Army ants, which Dr. Couzin has spent much time observing in Panama, are particularly good at moving in swarms. If they have to travel over a depression in the ground, they erect bridges so that they can proceed as quickly as possible.
They build the bridges with their living bodies, said Dr. Couzin, a mathematical biologist at Princeton University and the University of Oxford. They build them up if theyre required, and they dissolve if theyre not being used.
Americans spend a 3.7 billion hours a year in congested traffic. But you will never see ants stuck in gridlock.
Army ants, which Dr. Couzin has spent much time observing in Panama, are particularly good at moving in swarms. If they have to travel over a depression in the ground, they erect bridges so that they can proceed as quickly as possible.
They build the bridges with their living bodies, said Dr. Couzin, a mathematical biologist at Princeton University and the University of Oxford. They build them up if theyre required, and they dissolve if theyre not being used.
-
- groups:
- Green, Earth and Science, Science, Collective Journalism
-
- tags:
- Green, Earth and Science, Science, Collective Journalism, 7 more
-
-
critter
-
-
are swarming in Japan!
- 4 years ago
-
critter
