You want towers made of ants? This is how you get towers made of ants.

July 13, 2017 7:12 AM

In a new paper, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have studied the way ants use their bodies to construct towers when they run into a tall obstruction while looking for food or escaping to new areas. They suggest that the ants build these structures without a leader or coordinated effort. The paper's authors built on previous research that shows how simple behavioural rules can lead to the creation of a resilient structure. Kind of like Castells, but for fire ants. If you prefer your fire ants in a different configuration, they also make rafts.
posted by mandolin conspiracy (10 comments total)

If you prefer your fire ants in a different configuration, they also make rafts.

I do prefer my fire ants a certain way . . . though the x-rays in the first video show a certain flair.
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:28 AM on July 13, 2017

I prefer my fire ants far, far away.
posted by The otter lady at 7:39 AM on July 13, 2017

This explains a lot about what the heck has been happening on my desk.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:40 AM on July 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

Tie down your rubber tree plants.
posted by Segundus at 7:46 AM on July 13, 2017 [5 favorites]

Something something lame-ant configuration
posted by penduluum at 8:12 AM on July 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

"If all of humanity were to disappear, the remainder of life would spring back and flourish. The mass extinctions now under way would cease, the damaged ecosystems heal and expand outward. If all the ants somehow disappeared, the effect would be exactly the opposite, and catastrophic. Species extinction would increase even more over the present rate, and the land ecosystems would shrivel more rapidly as the considerable services provided by these insects were pulled away."

- E.O. Wilson & Bert Hölldobler in Journey To The Ants (the introductory version of their Pulitzer Prize winning: The Ants)
posted by fairmettle at 8:27 AM on July 13, 2017

Maybe so, but then if humanity disappears I don't see the ants creating a Choco Taco or Jeggings!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:38 AM on July 13, 2017

This is really cool and makes me want to learn more math so I can understand it properly.

It does not make me want to extract fire ant colonies from Georgia roadsides, though.
posted by asperity at 8:58 AM on July 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

what is this a tower for ants
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:38 AM on July 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

oh wait it's a tower of ants nvm
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:38 AM on July 13, 2017 [1 favorite]