“Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.”
"Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should" Jeff Goldblum's character Ian Malcolm in the original Jurassic Park film
Zombies are fun to imagine. Your piece reminds me more of Attack of the Mushroom People, the 1963 Japanese horror flick that terrified me as a child about people turning into humanoid mushrooms after eating them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matango
I just pictured the animated superhero Atom Ant as a zombie reading this- that'd be trouble. (Look: if the Marvel heroes can become zombies, why not him?).
On average, ants monopolize 15–20% of the terrestrial animal biomass, and in tropical regions where ants are especially abundant, they monopolize 25% or more.
Indeed! They are all around us. I think E. O. Wilson said if all the biomass disappeared except ants, you would be able to see outlines of cities and structures! Maybe he was talking about the C. elegans worm... Hmm...
“Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species”
He also co-authored The Superorganism with Bert Hölldobler, which expanded on their research into social insects like ants, bees, wasps, and termites.
I met Bert at Vanderbilt and saw E.O. WIlson give a talk to a filled auditorium. Forget to bring my "Ants" book for a signature, since Bert is the co-author.
The Argentine Ant Supercolony is the largest known ant colony in the world, covering at least 3,700 miles across the European Mediterranean region. It stretches from the west coast of Spain, through southern France, and into northern Italy, and is estimated to contain billions of worker ants and millions of nests.
Not scary to humans, but the concept is scary if you extrapolate it. Some humans are already living like zombies because they got addicted, convinced, or conned to give up their free will. Some might become literal zombies in the future when Elon Musk and other techies get inside their brains and replace them with AI-controlled chips.
In terms of social insects, they are similar, however, the superorganism ant groups cover COUNTRIES! Termites are also a social insect. All very interesting. E.O. Wilson spent his life studying them (among other things, of course.)
We published a paper on it. I'm Bill C. White, the second author. It was a project I helped a PhD student (Casey) with. Jason Moore was my boss. We were at Dartmouth College in a new computational genetics lab.
What an awesome opportunity! I read the abstract (that's probably my limit), and it sounds super fascinating. I also really like the study of DNA, tangential to all this, and I managed to work with someone who was working in "DNA origami." This reminded me of that experience because we were working with white papers.
That’s a typical response that I get when sharing my work. :-) DNA origami sounds like protein folding. It’s a very tough problem, and I worked on a large team developing software to predict the folding from DNA/RNA coding. AlphaFold is trying it on a GRAND SCALE. TONE of cash to be made by drug makers.
I studied ants for a while and ended up writing up some research. Called Ant Colony Optimization, the algorithm uses ant foraging behavior as a model for search. The search optimized the choice of statistical model parameters to use. Ants are amazing.
“Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
"Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should" Jeff Goldblum's character Ian Malcolm in the original Jurassic Park film
(Licks lips in Ian Malcolm)
Dude, I thought The Last Of Us was fiction, but it turns out it was just a human-focused remake of realworld insanity.
And don't get me started on the parasitic phorid flies that live and grow inside a fire ant's body before straight up decapitating it.
Thanks, nature!
Zombies are fun to imagine. Your piece reminds me more of Attack of the Mushroom People, the 1963 Japanese horror flick that terrified me as a child about people turning into humanoid mushrooms after eating them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matango
I remember that movie, scared the shit out of my 9 year old self!
I just pictured the animated superhero Atom Ant as a zombie reading this- that'd be trouble. (Look: if the Marvel heroes can become zombies, why not him?).
Did you ever see Invincible? How about Atom Eve?
Nope. I assume atomic power is involved there, too.
If you don't mind more adult-themed animation, you might really like the show.
Interesting superhero: "with the power to manipulate matter on a subatomic scale"
On average, ants monopolize 15–20% of the terrestrial animal biomass, and in tropical regions where ants are especially abundant, they monopolize 25% or more.
That's crazy high! They serve a really important purpose, don't they?
Indeed! They are all around us. I think E. O. Wilson said if all the biomass disappeared except ants, you would be able to see outlines of cities and structures! Maybe he was talking about the C. elegans worm... Hmm...
“Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species”
― Edward O. Wilson, The Ants
He also co-authored The Superorganism with Bert Hölldobler, which expanded on their research into social insects like ants, bees, wasps, and termites.
I met Bert at Vanderbilt and saw E.O. WIlson give a talk to a filled auditorium. Forget to bring my "Ants" book for a signature, since Bert is the co-author.
The Argentine Ant Supercolony is the largest known ant colony in the world, covering at least 3,700 miles across the European Mediterranean region. It stretches from the west coast of Spain, through southern France, and into northern Italy, and is estimated to contain billions of worker ants and millions of nests.
I appreciate the irony of the name, too.
Not scary to humans, but the concept is scary if you extrapolate it. Some humans are already living like zombies because they got addicted, convinced, or conned to give up their free will. Some might become literal zombies in the future when Elon Musk and other techies get inside their brains and replace them with AI-controlled chips.
Good read Andrew. I think the terrifying zombies in The Last of Us are based on the same fungi science
Yes, 100%!
Every time I read about zombie ants, I get creeped out.
My work here is done.
Ants are amazing!
I concur! I'm really interested in all the ways they work together, almost like one mind.
Zombie cicadas, too. That fungi, it's a nasty lil' growth. Makes the Last of Us look too plausible. :)
Ants are the best-known example of a superorganism.
Would you say bees are in this group as well?
In terms of social insects, they are similar, however, the superorganism ant groups cover COUNTRIES! Termites are also a social insect. All very interesting. E.O. Wilson spent his life studying them (among other things, of course.)
https://www.pbs.org/show/eo-wilson-ants-and-men/
That is very cool. Have you written about this before?
We published a paper on it. I'm Bill C. White, the second author. It was a project I helped a PhD student (Casey) with. Jason Moore was my boss. We were at Dartmouth College in a new computational genetics lab.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-87527-7_4
What an awesome opportunity! I read the abstract (that's probably my limit), and it sounds super fascinating. I also really like the study of DNA, tangential to all this, and I managed to work with someone who was working in "DNA origami." This reminded me of that experience because we were working with white papers.
That’s a typical response that I get when sharing my work. :-) DNA origami sounds like protein folding. It’s a very tough problem, and I worked on a large team developing software to predict the folding from DNA/RNA coding. AlphaFold is trying it on a GRAND SCALE. TONE of cash to be made by drug makers.
AlphaFold
https://alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/
I studied ants for a while and ended up writing up some research. Called Ant Colony Optimization, the algorithm uses ant foraging behavior as a model for search. The search optimized the choice of statistical model parameters to use. Ants are amazing.
https://www.amazon.com/Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759/ref=pd_lpo_sccl_1/134-7648578-5667704?pd_rd_w=d4Wod&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=R4AQXXP4DERDHZFRFGNA&pd_rd_wg=XDpvO&pd_rd_r=79e8b695-f39b-43a5-b703-c6a66656125a&pd_rd_i=0674040759&psc=1
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=mb2m9ZEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=mb2m9ZEAAAAJ:eQOLeE2rZwMC