<< The unique ability of fire ants to form a raft to survive flooding rain has enchanted biologists as well as researchers in other disciplines. (..) a three-dimensional aggregation of fire ants exhibits viscoelasticity with respect to external compression and shearing among numerous unusual mechanical properties. >>️
AA << study the ant raft in its natural form, i.e., composing no more than two layers. This allowed to focus on the cracks that are unique to membranes and see how their patterns are influenced by the fact that these ants are mobile and can self-repair the damage to keep their raft from disintegration. >>️
They << show that vertical and horizontal shaking can also prompt fire ants to aggregate. (..) the pull force expedites the alignment of fire ants, in analogy to the effect of an electric field on liquid crystal polymers. >>️
<< One major finding is that the raft can exhibit zero Poisson's ratio without resorting to specific geometry structures. This is enabled by the active recruitment of ants from the top layer to the bottom layer to keep the raft from disintegrating. >>️
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Chung-Hao Chen, Ting-Heng Hsieh, et al. Formation and mechanics of fire ant rafts as an active self-healing membrane. Phys. Rev. E 109, 014607. Jan 9, 2024.
David Ehrenstein. Material Properties of Fire-Ant Rafts. Physics 17, s5. Jan 9. 2024.
zattera (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/04/1864-onda-di-liberazione.html
randa (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=randa
Also: behav, behavior, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html
Keywords behavior, behaviour, ant, raft, self-healing
