In an online radio interview, SFI Science Board member Deborah Gordon discusses her work monitoring the movements of individual ants within colonies and describes what she has learned from them about the evolution of complex systems.

Listen to the interview (Gordon's interview begins at 38:40 in the podcast)

Gordon's book Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior was just published by SFI and Princeton University Press a part of their collaborative series "Primers in Complex Systems." More about the series.

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.

Gordon is professor of biology at Stanford University. Read a Stanford Daily feature article about her.

For more information and reviews of her book, visit the Princeton University Press listing.

Listen to Deborah Gordon's TEDS talk.