In ancient Greece, the city-states that waited until their own harvest was in before attacking and destroying a rival community's crops often experienced better long-term success.

Biology - Evolution

May 15, 2013 5 / 5 (4) 0 |

(Phys.org) —A team of researchers made up of two behavioral ecologists from the University of Lausanne and a robotics engineer from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has developed a novel way to ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Apr 19, 2013 4.7 / 5 (11) 5 |

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 ...

Physics - General Physics

Apr 25, 2011 4.6 / 5 (16) 20 |

(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.

Biology - Plants & Animals

Dec 10, 2010 3.7 / 5 (27) 11 |

(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.

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 16, 2010 4.9 / 5 (18) 1 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Colonies of army ants, whose long columns and marauding habits are the stuff of natural-history legend, are usually antagonistic to each other, attacking soldiers from rival colonies in border ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Nov 04, 2009 4.9 / 5 (7) 0

(Phys.org)—Pathogenic salmonellae rely on a division of labour: some of them see to the common wellbeing, while others are able to stand up to free rider salmonellae better. This teamwork bears certain ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Feb 21, 2013 not rated yet 0 |

The recently published genome sequences of seven well-studied ant species are opening up new vistas for biology and medicine. A detailed look at molecular mechanisms that underlie the complex behavioral differences ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 13, 2013 3.5 / 5 (2) 0 |

Ants are just about everywhere you look, and yet it's largely unknown how they manage to be so ubiquitous. Scientists have understood the carnal mechanism of ant reproduction, but until now have known little ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 12, 2013 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

There are more than 3,000 species of ter­mites in the world, all living in social colonies with dis­tinct hier­ar­chies. They can be dev­as­tating pests, with the ability to destroy entire build­ings. ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 12, 2013 not rated yet 0 |

Natural selection can be an agonizingly long process. Some organisms have a way of taking matters into their own hands, or—in the case of the ant species Cerapachys biroi—mandibles.

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 01, 2013 4.7 / 5 (3) 19 |

Trying to find just the right balance of time spent in meetings and time performing tasks is a tough problem for managers, but a Wayne State University researcher believes the behavior of ants may provide a useful lesson ...

Technology - Computer Sciences

Jan 29, 2013 2 / 5 (6) 7 |

(Phys.org)—Smaller ant colonies tend to live faster, die younger and burn up more energy than their larger counterparts, as do the individual ants that make up those colonies, according to new research that views the colonies ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Dec 19, 2012 4.5 / 5 (4) 0 |

Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that ants utilize a strategy to handle "information overload." Temnothorax rugatulus ants, commonly found living in rock crevices in the Southwest, place ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Sep 24, 2012 3 / 5 (2) 3 |

(Phys.org)—On the surface, ants and the Internet don't seem to have much in common. But two Stanford researchers have discovered that a species of harvester ants determine how many foragers to send out ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Aug 27, 2012 4.9 / 5 (12) 1 |