What lessons can humans learn from ants? These incredible insects have already solved many of the problems we face in modern society. Ant colonies can contain more than 5 million individuals housed inside densely packed, underground nests yet they can survive outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases. They accomplish complex tasks such as building structures equivalent to our tallest skyscrapers, yet they do so without constrution blueprints or a leadership hierarchy. Thousands of ants travel back and forth on narrow pathways as they search for food and carry it back to their nests; yet ants don’t experience traffic jams. Some ants are farmers, growing fungi on a scale that rivals our modern industrial farms, yet ants grow their crops without the use of pesticides and can still avoid devastating pest outbreaks. In this talk, join a biologist who has studied ants for more than two decades on a quest to follow the ancient advice of King Solomon: “Look to the ant… consider her ways and be wise.”
Scott Solomon is a Teaching Professor in BioSciences at Rice University and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. He has a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas at Austi n where his research examined the evolutionary origins of leafctter ants in the Amazon Basin. He has taught field biology courses in Colorado, Belize, and Tanzania and hosted educational trips to destinations including the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Baja, and Tahiti. His writing and photography have appeared in publications such as National Geographic, NBC News, Slate, Aeon, Nautilus, and Wired. He has written the book Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution, which was included on the 2017 Best Book List by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He co-wrote and co-produced a threepart docuseries for CuriosityStream called ‘Becoming Martian’ and is the host of the podcast ‘Wild World with Scott Solomon’. His most recent book is Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds. Dr. Solomon is a Fellow of The Explorers Club, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Tropical Ecology, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, and the Society for the Study of Evolution.