Not much blogging this week–I’m heading out to California to receive the National Academies prize I wrote about a while back. In the meantime, let me direct your attention to my lead article in this week’s Science Times section of the NY Times. I wrote about swarms, herds, schools, gaggles, and other crowds of animals, focusing on one of the scientists who studies them, Iain Couzin. If you want to find out more about his quest to find the underlying rules of swarm intelligence, check out his web site.
Author: Lori Jia
The New York Times, November 12, 2007
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 Couzin, such a comparison is a cruel insult – to the ants.
Americans spend a total of 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.
Continue reading “The march of the ants holds clues for humans”
I agree with Phil that it’s a good term. In fact, when I have to talk about intelligent design, these slides are how I illustrate its evolutionary roots.
Originally published November 12, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
1. From this week’s crop of new tattoos: Abraham writes: “I got mine in grad school (PhD materials science and applied physics, 2004 Cal). The tatoo is a convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) image of 6-4 Ti alloy (hexagonal, or beta phase) one of the first ‘super alloys’. Being light-weight, high-strength, and corrosion resistant, I felt it was appropriate to put on my back, to keep it strong.”
2. We are now actually inspiring people to get new science tattoos. Janet Stemwedel, my estimable fellow scienceblogger, send the following request:
Continue reading “Science Tattoo Friday: Someone Needs Your Ideas!”
This is a new and fascinating map. It shows how next spring is probably going to come early here in New England, as it has come earlier and earlier for the past few decades. But in Florida it will probably come late. Both changes stem from the same source: our carbon addiction. I explain why in my first foray in a new column for Wired.com called Dissection. The column, on all manner of science, will come out every other Friday. Let me know what you think, there or here.