Solace and Warnings From Our Planet’s Most Successful Non-Human Farmers

by Rebecca Silbermanfigures by Aparna Nathan It only took a few weeks of the coronavirus pandemic to send the American farm industry reeling. The supply chains that connect soy fields and chicken coops and greenhouses with American tables were not built for a world that lacks steady restaurant traffic or school lunches, where instead consumers are emptying supermarket shelves. There is at once a surplus … Continue reading Solace and Warnings From Our Planet’s Most Successful Non-Human Farmers

Ants self-medicate: are even cooler than Ant-Man made them look

 2015 has been a good year for ants: Ant-Man was added to the roster of Marvel superheroes and now a recent paper has shown ants participating in zoopharmacognosy – a long, fancy name to describe self-medication by non-human animals. While self-medicating has been observed in many animals – both vertebrate and invertebrate – it is often hard to discern whether that behavioral instance should be … Continue reading Ants self-medicate: are even cooler than Ant-Man made them look