Books : Ants at Work: How an Insect Society is Organized
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 595.796
EAN: 9780393321326
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0393321320
Label: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2000-10
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
For as long as humans have been telling stories about animals, ants have played the role of hard-working, slavish, mindless drudge, the kind of creature that busily prepares for the future without resting or reflecting. But at least one species, writes Stanford University professor Deborah Gordon in this engaging study, slips free of our stereotypes. The harvester ant, an abundant denizen of the Southwestern deserts, seems to live in a society that is based on something like mutual aid, far from the six-legged dictatorships of fable--and, indeed, far from the human models that storytellers and ethologists alike have imposed on ant congregations. Gordon wonders, "If the ants don't work like a miniature human society, how does a group of rather inept little creatures create a colony that gets things done?" She proposes a number of answers in her wide-ranging book, one of which is this: ants get things done by accident, by experimenting with and constantly testing their surroundings to see what there is to eat, and who else is trying to get at it. Gordon writes with good humor about the daily work of studying insects in the intense heat of the desert, noting, "Over the years I have evolved a costume that includes a long-sleeved shirt, a cap with a kind of curtain around its lower edge, and the largest sunglasses I can find. I look rather like an insect myself." Readers approaching her book will find that they learn a lot about ants in the process--and also a lot about how field scientists get things done themselves. --Gregory McNamee
Product Description:
Individual ants manage their incredibly complex colonies with no one in charge--how do they do it? Ants have long been regarded as the most interesting of the social insects. With their queens and celibate workers, these intriguing creatures have captured the imaginations of scientists and children alike for generations. Yet until now, no one had studied intensely the life cycle of the ant colony as a whole. An ant colony has a life cycle of about fifteen years--it is born, matures, and dies. But the individual ants that inhabit the colony live only one year. So how does this system of tunnels and caves in the dirt become so much more than the sum of its parts? Leading ant researcher Deborah Gordon takes the reader to the Arizona desert to explore this question. The answer involves the emerging insights of the new science of complexity, and contributes to understanding the evolution of life itself.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
A fascinating book! Dr. Gordon has studied complex organizational systems through her research on Harvester Ants in the Arizona desert over the past 20 years. I found a video of Dr. Gordon's presentation at the TED Conference a while back and have been interested in her work ever since- I was ecstatic to find her book. The nearly 200 page book was an easy read, Dr. Gordon presents her solid research methodology and the details of her years of (certainly mindnumbingly mundane) ant observations in ... Read More
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This book I found in a used book store, under a table, in San Luis Obispo, CA. Somehow, it jumped out at me (like all good books do -- they seem to choose their own readers).
I found this to be fascinating! Ms. Gordon and her colleagues went to an enormous amount of work to gather the data, and she compliled it in a most interesting way. It was intriguing to me how ants mange their colony lives, with foraging and hunting, etc. Also how ants cooperate primarily by some sort of ... Read More
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Yes, sometimes ants work hard. They ALWAYS look like they work hard - until you look real closely - and maybe put up a few roadblocks.
Deborah Gordon spent 17 summers virtually memorizing the same 25 acres in Arizona with her students, fooling around with about 300 colonies of harvester ants. She chose them for the scientific reason that they were big enough to see without glasses.
They are efficient? On page 105, Gordon includes a delightful excerpt from Mark Twain ... Read More
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I'm a bit surprised by some of the negative comments about this book, because they seem to have missed its point. This isn't a formal presentation of the author's research. It therefore lacks many details, does not review the full range of other relevant literature, and it has not been honed by a committee of reviewers. What it DOES do is to give the reader who doesn't know anything about ants a very readable narrative account of how one might go about finding out something about them. This book ... Read More
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I LOVE this book. What a rare peek over the shoulder of a true scientist with an inquisitive mind and appreciation for the art and beauty of science, applied to these tiny but incredibly interesting creatures. Within the same nest reside 5 or more ant types based on function. In that nest, some live up to 20 years while others "don't live long enough to EVER eat." I will never look at ants the same. Thank you for an insightful and wonderful story that makes life worth living.
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