Category Archives: Ants

Swarm-made Intelligent Architectures

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Giorgio Bertini

The nests of social insects are not only impressive because of their sheer complexity but also because they are built from individuals whose work is not centrally coordinated. A key question is how groups of insects coordinate their building actions. Here, we use … Continue reading →

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How do Humans, Ants, and other Animals form Societies?

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Giorgio Bertini

Forming groups is a basic human drive. Modern humans are all simultaneously members of many groups — there is the book club, your poker buddies, all those fellow sport team enthusiasts. Most basic of all these groups is the connection … Continue reading →

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Ants, Living Bridges, Collective Computation and Swarm Intelligence

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Giorgio Bertini

If a gap interrupts a swarm of army ants, they build a ‘living bridge’ using their own bodies. How? New research says ants perform a collective computation. Complex systems, from ant colonies to stock markets, share a common property: sophisticated … Continue reading →

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Deleuze Appreciating the Intelligence of Insects

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Giorgio Bertini

This article will be a brief examination of the some of the concepts found in the philosophy of the French writer Gilles Deleuze, with the ant colony as an example of how its insights can be applied. The philosophy of … Continue reading →

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What Ants teach us about the Brain, Cancer and the Internet

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Giorgio Bertini

Ecologist Deborah Gordon studies ants wherever she can find them — in the desert, in the tropics, in her kitchen … In this fascinating talk, she explains her obsession with insects most of us would happily swat away without a … Continue reading →

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The Remarkable Self-Organization of Ants

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Giorgio Bertini

Scientists have been studying the social behavior of ants and other insects for decades, searching for chemical cues and other signals that the insects use to coordinate behavior. Much of this work has focused on understanding how ants decide where … Continue reading →

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Ants Swarm Like Brains Think

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Giorgio Bertini

A neuroscientist studies ant colonies to understand feedback in the brain. The behavior of each individual in the group is set by the rate at which it meets other ants and a set of basic rules. Its behavior alters that … Continue reading →

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