In Dr Deborah Gordon tech talk, “How Ant Colonies Get Things Done” she presents her findings from studying a collection of ant colonies in New Mexico for the past 25 years. More specifically, she focus on the Red Carpenter ant species. While colonies of ants may look at first glance like simply a bunch of ants running around aimlessly, a closer and more careful look shows substantial social organization. A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, allocating workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants have tiny brains, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. One key to an ant colony,
