Army ant bridge-buliding algorithm

Army ants function without a leader and yet accomplish very organized-looking things, such as building bridges across gaps:

Researchers from the Swarm Lab believe they can break down the bridge-building process into a simple, two-rule system. Rule 1: If fellow ants are walking over you, stay put. Rule 2: If the number of ants walking over you isn’t higher than some rate, get moving again.

Full paper here (pdf).

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Read All About it: PLOS ONE in the News

Polar_Bear_AdF Polar Bear jumping, in Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard, Norway. Arturo de Frias MarquesThis December, the Press team is reflecting on some of the PLOS ONE articles covered in the news in 2015. Over the past year ~2,000 PLOS ONE publications were covered in over 6,000 news stories.

Ant time-lapse shows movement patterns

Ant trails

Ant activity can seem mysterious at times. The pack seems to start out slow as a few head out in your house in search for food. Before you know it, the entire colony is en route to a few crumbs that your toddler dropped on the floor a few hours ago.

Such a pain — but at the same time kind of impressive.

Simon Garnier, an assistant professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, studies swarm intelligence and how ants, seemingly simple insects, can organize themselves at such a relative large scale. See more in the video below from Science Friday, which includes some sweet ant time-lapse footage.

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PLOS ONE’s Top 5 Videos of 2015 (So Far)

At the end of 2014, we highlighted some of our favorite research videos from that year. We’re only mid-way through 2015, but we already have a number of popular research videos that we’d like to share. Here are some of … Continue reading »

The post PLOS ONE’s Top 5 Videos of 2015 (So Far) appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.

Science for the People: Pests in the City

sftpThis week, Science for the People is exploring the ways human-made environments support – and shape – the lives of many species we think of as vermin. We’ll talk to Geography and Environmental Studies Professor Dawn Day Biehler about her book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats. We also speak to postdoctoral researcher Clint Penick about his research on the junk food diets of urban ants.

*Josh provides research & social media help to Science for the People and is, therefore, completely biased.


Filed under: Curiosities of Nature Tagged: ants, bedbugs, Clint Penick, cockroach, Dawn Ray Biehler, flies, Peer-Reviewed Literature, pests, Pests in the City, Podcast, science for the people, University of Washington Press

I love this … "Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants" based in part on citizen science data

This is really cool:  Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Ants.  Free to download.  With incredible pics from Alex Wild.  And based in part on data from the School of Ants citizen science project.  You can download the PDF or the iBook from iTunes.  From the folks at "Your Wild Life" including Holly Menninger and Rob Dunn and others.  Definitely worth checking out.