[ExI] anternet

[spike]

COOL!

 

Stanford researchers discover the 'anternet'

A collaboration between a Stanford ant biologist and a computer scientist
has revealed that the behavior of harvester ants as they forage for food
mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet.

By Bjorn Carey 

Katherine Decktar 

Harvester ant foragers waiting inside the nest.

On the surface, ants and the Internet don't seem to have much in common. But
two Stanford researchers have discovered that a species of harvester ants
determine how many foragers to send out of the nest in much the same way
that Internet protocols discover how much bandwidth is available for the
transfer of data. The researchers are calling it the "anternet.".

 

 

 

 

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/august/ants-mimic-internet-082312.html

 

 

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