Computing on a Cellular Scale

The frenetic scurrying of ants around a nest may seem like much ado about nothing. There’s method in the madness, however.

Courtesy of Eric Weisstein, Wolfram Research

All this activity adds up to ingenious strategies for collectively working out the shortest path to a food source, combining forces to move a large, unwieldy object, and performing other functions crucial to an ant colony’s well-being.