Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Army ants have tiny brains and are nearly blind, yet they routinely perform extraordinary feats of engineering, building bridges with their bodies to span gaps that they need to cross. In this video from the Swarm Lab of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, recorded in the field in a tropical forest in Panama, researchers pulled apart one of these bridges to study how army ants recover from such a rupture. One conclusion is that, although individual ants are incapable of understanding the movement of their colony as a whole, they have evolved a behavioural code that tells them to stop in their tracks if another ant is walking on top of them, a strategy that allows them to rebuild quickly. There are, however, some more complex army ant-bridge manoeuvres that researchers are still attempting to explain, such as when ants will construct a shortcut bridge rather than taking a longer route. Capturing this phenomenon close-up, this short video observes the surprising capabilities of collective intelligence to solve complex logistical problems.
Video by Helen McCreery, Simon Garnier, Radhika Nagpal, Mike Rubenstein, Melinda Malley, NJIT, Harvard University
Editor: Adam D’Arpino
video
Ageing and death
We’re not the only animals that appear to grieve. What are the implications?
6 minutes
video
Love and friendship
For two brothers who rely on one another, love is a daily act of devotion
11 minutes
video
Evolution
How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution
60 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
video
Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
29 minutes
video
Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes
video
Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
video
Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
video
Pleasure and pain
The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy
12 minutes