incremental progress

We've come a long way in the last century or so

One of the worst thing we have ever invented as a species is traffic jams. Or so I thought. That is I thought we invented traffic jams.

But no

Ants invented traffic jams. So when you are doing cutting edge research on how to solve the traffic jam problem, you study ants. I quote:

Efficient transportation, a hot topic in nonlinear science, is essential for modern societies and the survival of biological species. Biological evolution has generated a rich variety of successful solutions, which have inspired engineers to design optimized artificial systems. Foraging ants, for example, form attractive trails that support the exploitation of initially unknown food sources in almost the minimum possible time. However, this strategy has not been shown to cope with bottleneck situations, when interactions cause delays that reduce the overall flow. Here, we present an experimental study of ants (Lasius niger) Cfronted with two alternative routes. We find that pheromone-based attraction generates one trail at low densities, whereas at a high level of crowding, another trail is established before traffic volume is affected, which guarantees that an optimal rate of food return is maintained. This bifurcation phenomenon is explained by a nonlinear modelling approach. Surprisingly, the underlying mechanism is based on inhibitory interactions. It points to capacity reserves, a limitation of the density-induced speed reduction, and a sufficient pheromone Ccentration for reliable trail perception. The balancing mechanism between cohesive and dispersive forces appears to be generic in natural, urban and transportation
From Dussutour-A; Fourcassie-V; Helbing-D; Deneubourg-JL
Nature-London. 2004, 428: 6978, 70-73; 28 ref.

And the people doing this research are writing about themselves in a funny way here. Apparently these brilliant minds are not pretty to look at. Bet you knew academics like this. If you know me, you know one...

Posted by Toni at September 22, 2004 01:30 PM