Individual ants by themselves are simple insects with limited memory and capable of performing simple actions.

 

However, these simple actions can combine and result in complex collective behavior exhibited by the ant colony as a whole, providing intelligent solutions to problems.

 

The behavior of ants have been much studied by scientists, noting that these behavior patterns can provide models for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. Scientists have been studying ants for decades, searching for chemical cues and other signals that the ants use to coordinate behavior.

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Understanding these social behaviors could lead to improvements and solutions in various human problems, and even help understand organizational abilities of large populations.