Awards
- Runner-up for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2010.
- Short-listed for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2010
- Short-listed for CHOICE Magazine's Outstanding Academic Titles 2010 (United States)
- Shortlisted for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2010.
Overview
How do ant colonies get anything done, when no one is in charge? An ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, and no ant directs another. Instead, ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm, and pattern of individual encounters and interactions--resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony. Ant Encounters provides a revealing and accessible look into ant behavior from this complex systems perspective. Focusing on the moment-to-moment behavior of ant colonies, Deborah Gordon investigates the role of interaction networks in regulating colony behavior and relations among ant colonies. She shows how ant behavior within and between colonies arises from local interactions of individuals, and how interaction networks develop as a colony grows older and larger. The more rapidly ants react to their encounters, the more sensitively the entire colony responds to changing conditions. Gordon explores whether such reactive networks help a colony to survive and reproduce, how natural selection shapes colony networks, and how these structures compare to other analogous complex systems.Ant Encounters sheds light on the organizational behavior, ecology, and evolution of these diverse and ubiquitous social insects.
Full Product Details
Author: Deborah M. Gordon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Volume: 1
Dimensions:
Width: 14.00cm
, Height: 1.30cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.227kg
ISBN: 9780691138794
ISBN 10: 0691138796
Pages: 184
Publication Date: 11 April 2010
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language: English
Reviews
In her new book, written in a lively style and accessible to a general audience, Gordon describes the sophisticated experiments that led her to intriguing insights about how an ant colony can solve vital problems, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, allocating workers to different tasks or defending a territory from rivals. Times Higher Education
In her new book, written in a lively style and accessible to a general audience, Gordon describes the sophisticated experiments that led her to intriguing insights about how an ant colony can solve vital problems, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, allocating workers to different tasks or defending a territory from rivals. -- Times Higher Education This volume provides a well-focused review of how complex biological systems develop and function, with applications well beyond understanding ant colonies. It may compel behavioral and community ecologists, as well as other non-biologists, to consider new perspectives in understanding interacting systems. -- Choice This concise, well-written book will be of interest to biologists and complexity scientists, but is written to also be accessible to non-scientists... Ant Encounters is an enjoyable read, full of neat experiments and lively anecdotes illustrating the scientific points. -- Elva J. H. Washington, Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Author Information
Deborah M. Gordon is professor of biology at Stanford University. She is the author of Ants at Work (Norton).
