Wobbly Universe

The following is from Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 76: Jul-Aug 1991, which may be visited by clicking the title link. I am posting a number of abstracts from Science Frontiers and encourage people to visit the site and to purchase the very fine collection of books produced by William Corliss. In my opinion, anyone who wants to do original scientific research that makes substantial new discoveries will find Corliss work to be a gold mine. It has helped me immensely.

This particular piece interests me especially, because I have found this 26 minute period before, not in ants, but in the fundamental time interval after which earthquakes are likely to be followed by more earthquakes at the same location. Not only after 26 minutes, but also after multiples of 26 minutes for many hours. It seems highly likely that the ants are sensitive to the earth processes that relate to earthquakes. Other animals are known to be predictors of earthquakes, and earthquakes are also associated with low frequency electromagnetic waves - ELF and ULF and even lower.

"Abstract. Activity levels within ant colonies are monitored by using a solid-state automatically digitizing camera. The movement-activity levels of whole colonies and of isolated groups of workers are studied. Whole colonies of Leptothorax allardycei show rhythmic changes in movement-activity level. Fourier and autocorrelation analyses indicate that the activity levels of colonies are periodic, with an average period of 26 min. Single, isolated workers do not show the pattern of periodic changes in activity level. Single workers become active spontaneously, but at no particular interval. Pairs of workers, confined together, also do not show periodicity in activity level. One worker can stimulate another worker to become active, thus coupling their movement-activity patterns. As ants are placed in larger groups, the variation in the interval between activity peaks declines in a manner predicted by coupled oscillator theory. It is argued that the colony can be regarded as a population of 'excitable subunits."

Activity records from two ant colonies Activity records from two ant colonies. Time (horizontal axis) is measured in 30-second intervals.
(Cole, Blaine J.; "Short-Term Activity Cycles in Ants: Generation of Periodicity by Worker Interaction," American Naturalist, 137:244, 1991.)

Comment. The author also pointed out the "formal" or mathematical similarity of the ant movement-activity levels and the dynamics of epidemics! This makes us wonder whether wars, economic cycles, etc. might be explained by considering humans as "excitable subunits."