On Sunday, 600 ants took a very small step for ant-kind when they boarded the International Space Station (ISS). The ants were taken aboard as part of an experiment designed by Stanford biology professor Deborah Gordon to see how they modified their search behavior in microgravity. The ants’ responses could lead to improvements in technologies such as robotics and mobile communications.

Ant colonies monitor their environment using what is known as an expandable search network. Most ants have poor vision and rely on smell and touch to detect threats, find food or map their environment. Because the search is not coordinated, ants communicate with one another by smell or by touching antennae. Their search pattern is altered depending on the frequency with which they encounter other ants. When they encounter other ants from their colony frequently they move in small circular paths, when their meetings are less frequent they move in straighter lines to cover more territory.

Similar protocols have been used by humans to regulate how cellphones relay signals and how autonomous robots search a building. These protocols are normally coordinated and regulated. However, environmental conditions can disrupt communications between them. In microgravity, ants will struggle to walk which will disrupt their normal routines and behaviors. Dr. Gordon is hoping that the ants’ responses will provide information that will improve human technology.

“We have devised ways to organize the robots in a burning building, or how a cellphone network can respond to interference, but the ants have been evolving algorithms for doing this for 150 million years,” Gordon said. “Learning about the ants’ solutions might help us design network systems to solve similar problems.”

Gordon and her team will compare video of the ants on the ISS to their Earth-based counterparts to see how microgravity alters their behavior. Additionally K-12 students will be invited to collect their own ants this spring, repeat the experiment and send in their results.

“There are 12,000 species of ants, and some species will perform better than others in this experiment,” Gordon noted. “For example, invasive ants find their way into our kitchens because they’re very good at searching. Comparing results from student data will allow us to look at different search strategies of the ants in different places on Earth.”

Gordon’s ants will live out the remainder of their lives on the International Space Station. Given that only sterile worker ants were sent, there won’t be a next generation.

Source: Stanford University