Meeting Abstract
Fire ants can link their bodies together to build waterproof rafts to survive floods. In this talk, I will discuss the structures that fire ants build, and how these structures are limited by the strength of the connections between the ants. We use time-lapse photography and x-ray scanning to characterize the construction of rafts and towers. We relate the shapes observed to the rheology of the ants, their viscosity and their elasticity, which are measured using a rheometer, a device which usually characterizes the properties of chocolate and yogurt.
