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22 January 2004
The social insects, including the ants and bees, are one of the pinnacles
of social evolution. Individual ant or bee workers are relatively
simple, but the colony as a whole performs elaborate behaviors, including
coordinated team foraging and construction of elaborate nests, all
without central leadership. How is this accomplished? We are coming
closer to answering this question as we begin to realize that social
insect colonies are networks, where each individual’s behavior
is influenced by the information they gather from others around them.
These network connections, combined with relatively simple rules of
behavior, produce complex behaviors at the group level (self-organization).
We explore how these rules generate division of labor, where group
members specialize on different tasks. Division of labor is considered
perhaps the most important adaptation of the social insects, but we
can use similar rules of self-organization to explain its appearance
across social groups, from invertebrates to humans.
From molecules in cells to colonies of social insects, biology is
rife with examples of scale-free or small world networks. We may be
on the verge of a Kuhnian paradigm shift in the philosophy of biological
science, since these networks suggest that the emergent properties
of these systems are real and not epiphenomena. This turning away
from the strictly reductionist view that has dominated science could
open a real discussion of other potentially emergent issues, such
as those associated with the relationships between physicality and
consciousness and spirituality
Keynote speaker:
Respondent:
- Martinez Hewlett, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona
Coverage:
Listen to Dr. Jennifer Fewell
Listen to Dr. Martinez Hewlett
 Read the Summary
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