Edge 240 - Iain Couzin: "Ants Have Algorithms"

Edge 240 - March 13, 2008

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(6,070 words)

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THE THIRD CULTURE
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Another example that we've been investigating are huge swarms of Mormon crickets. If you look at these swarms, all of the individuals are marching in the same direction, and it looks like cooperative behavior. Perhaps they have come to a collective decision to move from one place to another. We investigated this collective decision, and what really makes this system work in the case of the Mormon cricket is cannibalism.

ANTS HAVE ALGORITHMS
A Talk with Iain Couzin
EDGE Video

IAIN COUZIN is Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. His research focuses on understanding collective behavior; how large-scale biological patterns result from the actions and interactions of the individual components of a system. He studies self-organized pattern formation in a wide range of biological systems, including ants, fish schools, bird flocks, locust/cricket swarms and human crowds.

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IN THE NEWS
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RUSHKOFF'S ALGORITHM
Posted by Joshua Glenn

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BOING BOING
March 4, 2008

EDGE: Nicholas Christakis, Douglas Rushkoff, Alan Alda, and the EDGE Dinner

POSTED BY DAVID PESCOVITZ, MARCH 4, 2008 2:31 PM

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This online EDGE edition with links and graphics is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge240.html

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