If the first thing that comes to mind when you think about ants is "industrious," you might be in for a surprise. In 2015, biologists at the University of Arizona reported that a sizable chunk of the "workers" that make up ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 8, 2017
2
1157
(PhysOrg.com) -- An ant colony is the last place you'd expect to find a maths whiz, but University of Sydney researchers have shown that the humble ant is capable of solving difficult mathematical problems.
Plants & Animals
Dec 10, 2010
9
0
The ants may go marching one by one, but they end up forming a superstructure of thousands -- and together they can form a raft that stretches the boundaries of the laws of physics, according to new research released today. ...
General Physics
Apr 25, 2011
20
0
Colonies of ants are incredibly complex, and at the same time intensely cooperative, so much so that they are often referred to as single 'superorganisms'. But to what extent do they actually behave as a single entity?
Plants & Animals
Nov 11, 2015
13
1370
Nature has provided a great deal of inspiration for computer scientists developing search algorithms and ways to solve complicated problems with as little computing power as possible. Ant colonies, beehives, bat hunting, ...
Mathematics
Feb 27, 2020
0
7
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying ants have discovered that when they are seriously ill they voluntarily go away from the nest to die, which reduces the chances of them passing their infection to nest mates.
Ants, which are eusocial insects, have intrigued scientists for long as a model for cooperation inside a colony where they nurse the young, gather food and defend against intruders. Most recently, ants have been shown to ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 13, 2015
2
36
Army ants form some of the largest insect societies on the planet. They are quite famous in popular culture, most notably from a terrifying scene in Indiana Jones. But they are also ecologically important. They live in very ...
Plants & Animals
May 26, 2021
1
681
New research from the IST Austria (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), in collaboration with Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Würzburg, has found that Lasius neglectus ants sacrifice ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 9, 2018
0
400
In a research article published April 3 in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, Prof. Sylvia Cremer and colleagues at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria show how micro-infections promote social vaccination ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 3, 2012
1
0
