{"661640":{"#nid":"661640","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Fire Ant Rafts Form Thanks to a Force Known as the \u2018Cheerios Effect\u2019","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv\u003E\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEver stare at those last few pieces of breakfast cereal and watch them seemingly clump together or cling to the side of the bowl?\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EScientists have dubbed it the \u0026ldquo;Cheerios effect,\u0026rdquo; the combination of forces causing those clumps. Researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered those same forces draw small numbers of ants together to begin to form water-repellent ant rafts \u0026mdash; even though the ants seem to be uninterested in collaborating with their neighbors for survival.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1103\/PhysRevFluids.7.090501\u0022\u003EDescribed in the journal \u003Cem\u003EPhysical Review Fluids\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, their study explains for the first time the underlying forces at play in attracting ants to each other. Ants clump together into rafts to survive during flooding, and the team determined it takes exactly 10 ants to form a stable raft.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;I think the surprising thing here is that ants prioritize exploration, actively avoiding each other on the water surface. They instead rely on physical forces to bring them together \u0026mdash;\u0026nbsp;the Cheerios effect,\u0026rdquo; said Hu, professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026ldquo;Previously, we only studied the change in the shape of the raft once formed; we never asked how ants find each other on the water surface.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/news\/2022\/09\/fire-ant-rafts-form-thanks-force-known-cheerios-effect\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERead the full story on the College of Engineering website.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEver stare at those last few pieces of breakfast cereal and watch them seemingly clump together or cling to the side of the bowl? Scientists have dubbed it the \u0026ldquo;Cheerios effect,\u0026rdquo; the combination of forces causing those clumps. Researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered those same forces draw small numbers of ants together to begin to form water-repellent ant rafts \u0026mdash; even though the ants seem to be uninterested in collaborating with their neighbors for survival.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"In water, ants tend to flail and actively repel each other but are drawn together by physics"}],"uid":"27446","created_gmt":"2022-09-28 17:19:08","changed_gmt":"2023-03-02 20:00:11","author":"Joshua Stewart","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-10-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2022-10-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"661639":{"id":"661639","type":"image","title":"Ant raft closeup","body":null,"created":"1664385327","gmt_created":"2022-09-28 17:15:27","changed":"1664385327","gmt_changed":"2022-09-28 17:15:27","alt":"ants forming a raft","file":{"fid":"250609","name":"ant-raft-t.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ant-raft-t.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ant-raft-t.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":513806,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ant-raft-t.jpg?itok=xy3qqA9b"}}},"media_ids":["661639"],"groups":[{"id":"1237","name":"College of Engineering"},{"id":"108731","name":"School of Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"192253","name":"cos-neuro"},{"id":"297","name":"David Hu"},{"id":"186929","name":"fire ants rafts"},{"id":"14335","name":"Fire Ants"},{"id":"191339","name":"Hungtang Ko"},{"id":"190256","name":"G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jstewart@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJoshua Stewart\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jstewart@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}