A new study has shown that ants have been practicing sustainable agriculture for more than 50 million years . And that just as agriculture helped humans to become a dominant species, it has also enabled ants to become one of nature's most successful social insects. Details are published in an article in Microbiology Today that describes the system applied by ants to keep their "gardens" free of pests.
The researchers also observed in this study that some worker ants had a white, wax-like substance on their bodies. But when looking through a microscope, the scientists discovered that it was a microorganism of the group of actinobacteruas, which produce more than 80% of the antibiotics used by humans. In the case of ants, these bacteria produce antifungal compounds that stop pathogens attacking the garden.
And it is that these social insects seem to have a lot to teach us. Without going any further, last week the German physicist Dirk Helbing demonstrated that endless traffic jams could be a thing of the past if we applied the techniques used by ants, which are capable of moving en masse from one side to another without traffic getting congest in no time.
