Category: SmartPlanet

The “anternet” discovered! How ants mimic Internet protocol

In a sign that nature still has an awful lot to teach us, a Stanford biologist and computer scientist have discovered that harvester ants hunt for food the same way Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) operates to determine and manage network congestion. That’s right. The foundation of the Internet is based on an algorithm that ants have used for millions of years.

The way ants use the networking process is by measuring the rate of return by hunters seeking food, and using that data to vary the number of individuals sent out to help with the effort. In other words, when early ant seekers return quickly after leaving the nest to find food, more ants are directed to help gather the spoils. However, when it takes longer for the first ants to return, that means that food is scarce, and more ants can stay home rather than following their brethren into the wild.

The Internet works in a similar way using TCP. If packets of data are acknowledged quickly by a receiver node, then the sender knows it can speed up the delivery rate. However, if acknowledged receipts are slower, then the sender knows the network is congested, and that it should slow down transmission accordingly.

Given that ants have been testing and engineering their own behavioral algorithms for millions of years, there’s likely still a lot that they can teach us about creating efficient networked systems. Maybe we should update that old parable about the ant and the grasshopper. If only the grasshopper had spent less time idling away the summer months, and more time designing simple and scalable algorithms…

Via Complexity Digest

Phi Beta Iota:  When the human mind melds with the cosmic (extra-terrestial) and the Earth (intra-terrestial) minds, Utopia is possible.

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DuckDuckGo Biomimicry

Chronicling Latin America’s deforestation, leaf by leaf

By Ian Mount | August 24, 2012, 3:00 AM PDT

BUENOS AIRES–There may be nothing more depressing than watching a deforestation map in real time, knowing that each time a green pixel turns red, the corresponding square of earth has been denuded of trees.

That must make the folks at Terra-i some of the biggest sadists (or masochists) in the world, as they programmed a system that lets you do just that.

Launched at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June, the Terra-i system uses NASA satellite data to create image frames that, when sequenced together in video, show real-time deforestation in Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. Developed over more than three years, Terra-i is run out of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) near Cali, in southwest Colombia, with help from the HEIG-VD in Switzerland, and the Nature Conservancy, which funds it.

Read full article with mulitple overhead screen shots.

Urban beekeeping keeps cities healthy

“We need bees for the future of our cities and urban living,” Noah Wilson-Rich said at TEDxBoston.  Wilson-Rich completed his Ph.D. in honeybee health in 2005. In 2006, honeybees started disappearing.  “We don’t even find dead bodies, and it’s bizarre. Researchers still do not know what’s causing it,” says Wilson-Rich.  We’ve been hearing about the disappearance of bees for some time, but Wilson-Rich is bringing a new perspective to the table.  Cities need bees, and bees need cities.

The top firms that champion conflict-free supply chains

Intel, HP, and Apple have received top marks for their efforts to eradicate conflict minerals from supply chains in a new report published by the Enough Project.

The anti-genocide nonprofit organization’s report, dubbed “Taking Conflict Out of Consumer Gadgets” (.pdf), researched how leading technology developers and manufacturers use “conflict minerals” in their supply chains since the last report was published in 2010. These types of minerals, including tantalum, tin, and tungsten, are often mined in places which are considered politically unstable, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo — areas that may have civil war, corruption or human rights problems.

Continue reading “SmartPlanet: Conflict-Free Supply Chains – Tracing, Auditing, Certification – Solid Advance in True Cost Economics”

Blind mice see again with prosthetic retina

By figuring out the code that retinas use to communicate with the brain, scientists have developed a prosthetic retina that restored vision to blind mice.

Fukushima disaster spawns mutant butterflies

Japanese scientists have found that radiation from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster has mutated a domestic butterfly species. It may not have morphed into Mothra, but the pale glass blue butterfly has displayed genetic and physiological changes.

Solar bag hauls, purifies water

By David Worthington

SmartPlanet, August 7, 2012

Big ideas can sometimes start small. Two industrial design students have designed a prototype portable solar water purification system that could save countless lives at a cost of just a few dollars per unit.

The bag is the brainchild of Ryan Lynch and partner Marcus Triest whose work was profiled by our CNET colleague Tim Hornyak on Sunday. Lynch’s solar bag is a very clever design that uses the sun’s UV rays to eliminate harmful biological contaminants.

Water is treated as UV rays pass through the bag’s translucent polyethylene outer layer; the inner lining is black to accelerate the filtration process with heat. Up to 2.5 gallons are made drinkable every six hours, according to its Web site. The overall design resembles a common messenger bag.

It is also as much functional as it is fashionable. The bag is inspired by “Ziploc” food storage products, and can be laid flat to expose water to more UV rays. The inventors say that the Solar Bag also dramatically improves upon the localized water purification standard of two days sub-saharan Africa.

Read full post, includes sketch of design.