When you run into a fire ant, you’re in for a bad day. But if you run into a colony-sized raft of fire ants, well, that’s going to be a Keep reading
Tag: ants
Escaping the Flood
Fire ants clump together into giant rafts to stay alive during floods. But these rafts won’t form with just any number of ants. Researchers found that individual ants will actually Keep reading
Ant Bridge
As red ants scout their way to food, the terrain can sometimes get in the way. Here a leading scout has made their body into a bridge that their fellows Keep reading
Sand Traps
Antlion larvae catch prey by digging conical pits in sand. The steep walls of the trap are near the angle of repose, the largest angle a granular material can maintain Keep reading
How Ant Stingers Work
Anyone who’s felt the sting of a fire ant knows it only takes an instant for this species to deliver a painful blow. Scientists are uncovering why that is using some of Keep reading
Review: “How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls”
“An eight-year-old girl kicked her feet back and forth on the seat of a Long Island Railroad train. I beckoned her to cover over and pointed to the top of Keep reading
Ants Avoid Traffic Jams by Giving Up
Both ants and traffic are well-connected to fluid dynamics, even if they are not, strictly speaking, fluids. As it happens, ant traffic has interesting implications not only for human transit Keep reading
When Fire Ants are a Fluid
Substances don’t have to be a liquid or a gas to behave like a fluid. Swarms of fire ants display viscoelastic properties, meaning they can act like both a liquid Keep reading
Ants as a Fluid
The collective behavior of ants can mirror the flow of a viscous fluid. It would be interesting to see if any such parallels carry over to the flocking of birds Keep reading