epidemic

Extreme Makeover, Epidemic Edition: Can Ants Modify Their Nests for Survival?  

Posted on by Shannon Sindermann
Ants on a hill

Imagine if your first instinct during an epidemic wasn’t to wear a mask or stock up on groceries, but instead to start rearranging and remodeling your house. As it turns out, researchers have found that black garden ants (Lasius niger) do exactly that when confronted with the threat of disease. These tiny architects instinctively spring into action, redesigning their nests in various ways to slow the spread of infection and protect their crowded colonies where diseases can easily spread.  

Read more about the research and see how these findings offer insights into how spatial changes – both in ants and potentially in human environments – can help limit the risks of infection.  

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What Caused the Black Death?

Posted on by Sara Klink


I was confident I knew a few things about the bubonic plague: It was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which was transmitted to humans by fleas hitching a ride on the back of traveling rats. It spread rapidly and devastated populations around the globe, and because cats, a natural predator of scurrying rodents, had been killed, rats proliferated along with their deadly, infectious cargo. However, until I read a recent PLoS ONE article, I did not realize there was still debate about whether Yersinia pestis was the infectious agent for Black Death, the disease that ravaged 14th century Europe and killed one third of its population.

Yersinia pestis proposed infectious agent of the black death
Continue reading “What Caused the Black Death?”