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Studying ant behavior to gain insights into emergent order isn’t exactly a new idea, but it’s nice to see some ongoing work that might have practical implications in the relatively near term: Ants can teach us how to beat city congestion, claim scientists:

[Dr Dirk Helbing, et al] set up an “ant motorway” with two routes [...]

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of the excellent Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, and more recently The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which I’ve not read yet) discusses what he is optimistic about: The Birth of Stochastic Science. He laments the fact that too [...]

Here’s an interesting interview discussing the dangers of the “Biodiversity Hotspots” approach to conservation. This comment, in particular, caught my attention:

Many extremely stressful environments have led to some of our most unique species — polar bears in the Arctic, camels in the deserts, fish with antifreeze in their blood in northern waters, and so on. [...]