Leaders

I listened to the radio lab Emergence. I learned alot. They talked about the queen ants and how they do not give orders. When i was little i always thought the queen ant told every little ant what to do, but from this radio lab they said that all she does is lay there, and lay eggs. That is all she does. The ants do not know her as a queen or anything special, they do not know one another as antyhing, just as workers and their jobs as ants. They explained that ants are boring by watching just one, but amazing watching a whole group of them. When the weather changes to worse, they build a barrier over their hole to protect them. Ants also nurse their babies, and do many other spectacular things that no one knows about.
Pharomones are the key to what links animals communication to one another. A man from Harvard figured this out by following ants, and disected them. He put this under magnifying glass and to figure out organs of the ants. Spread them across the ground and watched all the other ants flood out to play with organs and parts of the ants. The ants exchange information, perhaps from smell.
This was really interesting listeing to how ants communicate and how they know to do certain things. Most is following scent trails and as a group, they can solve problems together by combining all their scents together. Ants are blind and brainless.
Even though people step on ants and think nothing of it, they are killing a very smart creature that many people over look. I recommend this radio lab episode.