Featured series 
Tag: Termites
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Nation & World
Termites shape and are shaped by their mounds
Researchers investigate how centimeter-sized termites, without architects, engineers or foremen, can build complex, long-standing, meter-sized structures all over the world.
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Nation & World
Applied mathematicians in Namibia
What can termites teach us about designing green buildings? As it turns out, a lot.
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Nation & World
How termites ventilate
Research led by a Harvard professor describes in detail how termite mounds are ventilated.
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Nation & World
Reproductive strategies
When compared with a solitary strategy of producing offspring who then go on to produce their own offspring, a new Harvard study has found that eusociality is a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
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Nation & World
Robots to the rescue
Inspired by termites’ resilience and collective intelligence, a team of computer scientists and engineers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has created an autonomous robotic construction crew. The system needs no supervisor, just simple robots that cooperate.
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Nation & World
Termites as architects
The air exchange system inside termite mounds provides a natural example of how to harness intermittent winds.
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Nation & World
In praise of unwanted termites
The star of Africa’s savanna ecosystems may be the lowly insect. Its regularly spaced mounds prove a key to maintaining ecological function in the area.
