"So ant algorithms have to be simple, distributed and scalable - the very qualities that we need in large engineered sitributed systems," she said.

"Ant algorithms are used in robotics, for example for optimizing manufacturing processes, but we have now transferred the trick to drug discovery," says Schneider.

So ant algorithms have to be simple, distributed and scalable – the very qualities that we need in large engineered distributed systems.

Shaoqin Lu, Multi-Objective Workshop Scheduling of Marine Production Based on Improved Ant Colony Algorithm, Journal of Coastal Research, SPECIAL ISSUE NO. 107.

The biologist Deborah Gordon has uncovered how ant colonies search efficiently without central organization, an insight that might improve computer networks. Ants are capable of remarkable feats of ...

An analysis of ant colony behavior could yield better algorithms for network communication, say investigators. Biologists have long suspected that ants base their population-density estimates on ...