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The Conversation USA

The Conversation USA

How do fire ants form amazing towers and rafts without a master plan?

  • Written by Craig Tovey, Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Co-Director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Design, Georgia Institute of Technology
imageHow do they each know what to do?Tim Nowack, CC BY-ND

Drop a clump of 5,000 fire ants in a pond of water. In minutes the clump will flatten and spread into a circular pancake that can float for weeks without drowning the ants.

Drop the same clump of ants near a plant on solid ground.

imageHundreds of thousands of ants creating a tower together – but...

Read more: How do fire ants form amazing towers and rafts without a master plan?

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