The emergent architect of an ant city

Check out this terrific video called "Ants - Nature's Secret Power." It is a study of ants, of the elaborate miniature cities of ants, and the collective architect that designs these exquisite cities. Ant experts Bert Holldobler provides commentary regarding these highly coordinated super-organisms. In the clip below, scientist pore tons of concrete into a huge underground ant colony in order to study the structure, and it is surreal. You can view the entire video at Hulu. watch as the ants repel a bear attack at the 5 minute mark, and then watch these same ants overwhelm an entire bee hive to obtain honey. Watch them maintaining their own domesticated animals (including mealy bugs) at the 8 minute mark. I learned that ants evolved from wasps about 100 million years ago. The males' only job is to mate with the queen. In some species males can be used to fertilized the queen many years after they have died. All of the workers are female. All ant species function as superorganisms. Specialization among highly coordinated ant in Argentina is discussed at the 18 minute mark. This documentary comments often on the chemical communication signals exchanged by ants (e.g., at the 37 minute mark). And check out the fungus gardens maintained by some ants (43 minute) through the use of elaborate air conditioning vents. The above excerpt regarding an ant colony excavation can be found at the 54 minute mark of the full video.

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Eagle days on the Mississippi River

Although St. Louis was founded as a fur trading post, it is no longer well known as a place to view wildlife. But you can still spot wildlife. Yesterday my family traveled about 10 miles north of downtown St. Louis to the "Old Chain of Rocks Bridge," which spans the Mississippi River.

The bridge was for a time the route used by U.S. Route 66 to cross over the Mississippi. Its most notable feature is a 22-degree bend occurring at the middle of the crossing, necessary to allow river traffic to have uninterrupted navigation on the river. Originally a motor route, the bridge now carries walking and biking trails over the river. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

I do need to add that this was a brilliant use of an old narrow bridge. Click on the thumbnail for a panorama showing the view south from the bridge (Downtown St. Louis is on the horizon to the left). The bridge is located in a big wide relatively quiet area (except for one other bridge that runs parallel), where one can enjoy the Mississippi River and the surrounding undeveloped areas, just north of the Chain of Rocks rapids and a bit south of the confluence between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. For one weekend each year, this wonderful bridge is featured as the venue for Eagle Days, a prime spot for viewing American bald Eagles. This is rather cool, to be able to spot wild bald eagles right in the heart of the Midwest. Here's a bit more description of their migration relevant to the Mississippi. [More . . . ]

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What scientific concept would improve everyone’s cognitive toolkit?

This question from The Edge and the dozens of thoughtful answers make for some good reading. Basically, each author picks a single idea they feel is necessary for everyone to "get" in order to understand the world we live in; to have a successful technological civilization. I found this via Pharyngula, who suggested that the Mediocrity Principle may be The One. That is, the basic understanding that we are not the special reason for the existence of the universe. His argument is that basic math skills would help. We're talking about skills that even average college students seem to lack, but are nominally taught to most people who graduate secondary schools. Adjacent to PZ, Sue Blackmore argues for the primacy of understanding that CINAC (Correlation Is Not A Cause). Apparently this lesson is hard to drum into even college students who are nominally studying science. Most of the answers are direct explanations of ideas necessary to scientific understanding. But a few are more of the "what would be nice to discover" variety. But go see for yourself. There are many insightful replies to this question by 160 authors.

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