1,566 results
- Animals
Sniff . . . Pow! Wasps use chemicals to start ant brawls
Wasps sneak around in ant colonies thanks to chemicals that send the ants into a distracting frenzy of fighting among themselves.
-
European Union for Ants: Supercolony reigns from Italy to Portugal
European researchers have documented the largest ant supercolony yet, a network of cooperating nests that stretches from Italy to the Atlantic.
- Animals
No Tickling: Common caterpillars deploy defensive hair
The caterpillars of the European cabbage butterfly have a chemical defense system that scientists haven't documented before.
- Animals
Homing Lobsters: Fancy navigation, for an invertebrate
Spiny lobsters are the first animals without backbones to pass tests for the orienteering power called true navigation.
-
Bug Watching
Crazy about insects? The Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute in Arizona has a “Backyard Bugwatching” page with links to photos and articles focusing on a variety of insects and their diverse habitats. Learn what it takes to track Mexican leaf-cutter ants and catch bullet ants. Journey to Costa Rica’s rainforests for close-ups of novel arthropods. Watch […]
-
Ant invaders strand seeds without rides
Invading Argentine ants may reshape the plant composition of the South African fynbos ecosystem because the newcomers don't disperse seeds.
- Math
Mathematical Art on Display
The term “mathematical art” usually conjures up just one name–that of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (1898–1972). Many people are familiar with Escher’s endless staircases, hyperbolic tilings, Möbius ants, intricate tessellations, and other creations. They may also be aware of the intertwining of mathematics and art during the Renaissance, with the development of perspective […]
- Animals
Mole-rats: Kissing but not quite cousins
Damaraland mole-rats live underground in rodent versions of bee hives, but a genetic analysis of these colonies finds that kinship isn't very beelike.
- Physics
Peer Pressure in Numbers: Physicists model the power of social sway
A mathematical model of peer-influenced behavior may help explain some unexpected patterns that have been observed in financial data and bird populations.
-
Aphids with Attitude
A few aphid species that live socially in groups raise their own armies of teenage female clones.
- Humans
Motor City hosts top science fair winners
The 2000 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair winners were announced in Detroit.
- Math
Möbius and his Band
Making a Möbius strip. A Möbius band (or strip) is an intriguing surface with only one side and one edge. You can make one by joining the two ends of a long strip of paper after giving one end a 180-degree twist. An ant can crawl from any point on such a surface to any […]
