ants

Book review – The Ecology of Collective Behavior

8-minute read
keywords: ecology, ethology

This is the third of a trio of reviews in which I take a brief detour into ants and collective behaviour more generally. I previously reviewed The Ant Collective, a graphical introduction to ant behaviour, and entomologist Deborah M. Gordon’s Ant Encounters, a primer on how collective behaviour in ants comes about. The Ecology of Collective Behavior is the second book by Gordon that I will examine. It proposes a research programme to figure out both how collective behaviour responds to changing environmental conditions, and how it evolves. Though squarely aimed at professional biologists, this brief and interesting book is nevertheless accessible to a wider interested audience and makes its case with nary an equation in sight.

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Book review – Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior

9-minute read
keywords: entomology, ethology

This is the second of a trio of reviews in which I take a brief detour into ants and collective behaviour more generally. I previously reviewed The Ant Collective, a graphical introduction to ant behaviour, and am here turning to entomologist Deborah M. Gordon’s 2010 book Ant Encounters before finishing with her recent book The Ecology of Collective Behavior. The core question driving this book is how ant colonies get anything done given that no one is in charge. Her contention, supported by a wide-ranging survey of examples, is that ant colonies function through numerous ants interacting to form a dynamic network. Stated this pithily, I admit it might not sound like much of an answer but rather a rephrasing of the question using fancy words. What do you mean, “interaction network”? If so, read on: this primer is full of fascinating biological examples and interesting insights that will hopefully clarify the above, providing you with a bigger picture of how and why ants behave the way they do.

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Book review – The Ant Collective: Inside the World of an Ant Colony

6-minute read
keywords: entomology

This is the first of a trio of reviews in which I take a brief detour into ants and collective behaviour more generally. Next up are entomologist Deborah M. Gordon’s 2010 book Ant Encounters and her recent The Ecology of Collective Behavior, but first The Ant Collective. This one grabbed my attention as soon as it was announced. Not a comic or graphic novel, but an A4-format book about ant colonies that is chock-a-block with infographics? Yes, please! Showcasing the best of what science illustration can be and combining it with a genuine outsider’s interest in entomology, The Ant Collective makes for a wonderful graphical introduction that will appeal to a very broad audience of all ages.

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Year list – The Inquisitive Biologist’s top 5 reads of 2022

3-minute read

2022 was a year in which I went down a few rabbit holes with really big books that took a lot of my time. As such, I read and reviewed 52 books this year.

What follows is my personal top 5 of the most impactful, most beautiful, and most thought-provoking books I read during 2022.

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Book review – The Guests of Ants: How Myrmecophiles Interact with Their Hosts

6-minute read
keywords: entomology, ethology

It has to be one of the more delightful details of the natural world: the ecosystem of an ant’s nest is home to its own constellation of creatures that specialise in living within or nearby it. Daniel Kronauer’s book Army Ants first drew my attention to these so-called myrmecophiles and their sometimes bizarre adaptations. I was stoked when Harvard University Press announced it would publish a monograph focusing on just this aspect of ant biology, authored by entomology professors Bert Hölldobler (a frequent co-author to E.O. Wilson) and Christina L. Kwapich. The Guests of Ants gives a beautifully illustrated, wide-ranging, and critical literature review of this delightful corner of myrmecology. Will ants make it to my personal top 5 for a third-year running? This book is a very strong contender.

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Book review – Scientist: E. O. Wilson: A Life in Nature

9-minute read
keywords: ecology, entomology, history of science

The recent loss of famous entomologist and brilliant mind Edward O. Wilson shook me. In an attempt to find some solace I turned to Richard Rhodes’s recent biography, published only a month before. I already had this lined up for review and was looking forward to it, but this must be the saddest possible reason to prioritise reading a book. Fortunately, I found a warm and respectfully written biography that, as the title suggests, focuses foremost on the scientific achievements of Wilson.

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Book review – Ant Architecture: The Wonder, Beauty, and Science of Underground Nests

7-minute read

Making groundbreaking scientific contributions on a shoestring budget has become a challenge in the 21st century. But there are still opportunities. Take American entomologist Walter R. Tschinkel. With little more than scrap metal, homemade portable kilns, and one almighty spade, he has been researching the architecture of ant nests, pouring molten metal into tiny holes in the ground and digging up the resulting casts. The beautifully illustrated Ant Architecture provides a glimpse into his unusual methods but also shows the many fascinating findings and questions his research is throwing up. Supremely interesting, this is unlike any book on insects you have seen before and is already a firm candidate for my top five favourite books of 2021.

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Book review – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves

6-minute read

Can we predict what aliens will look like? On some level, no, which has given science fiction writers the liberty to let their imagination run wild. On another level, yes, writes zoologist Arik Kershenbaum. But we need to stop focusing on form and start focusing on function. There are universal laws of biology that help us understand why life is the way it is, and they are the subject of this book. If you are concerned that consideration of life’s most fundamental properties will make for a dense read, don’t panic, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy is a spine-tingling dive into astrobiology that I could not put down.

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Year list – The Inquisitive Biologist’s top 5 reads of 2020

3-minute read

This year will probably go down in history as the one we would all rather forget. Fortunately, there were many amazing books being published to take your mind off things for a moment. As I expected, this was a somewhat less productive year, where I read and reviewed 74 books.

For those who do not feel like trawling through that many reviews, here is my personal top 5 of the most impactful, most beautiful, and most thought-provoking books I read during 2020.

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Book review – Army Ants: Nature’s Ultimate Social Hunters

6-minute read

If ants give you the heebie-jeebies, you will want to turn away now, for this book review will deal with the ultimate arthropod nightmare: army ants. If, however, insects are your shtick, stick around, because German entomologist Daniel Kronauer has written a phenomenal book on army ant biology that is chock-a-block with jaw-dropping, award-winning photography.

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