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The similarity and difference between ant and human ultrasocieties: From the viewpoint of scaling laws

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Chen Hou*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409. houch@mst.eduhttp://web.mst.edu/~houch/

Abstract

Complementary to Gowdy & Krall's comparison between ants and humans, I use economy scaling laws to discuss the similarity and difference between them quantitatively. I hypothesize that individual variations in society result in higher energetic efficiency in larger groups, and that the difference in the sustainability between these species originates from the driving forces of growth with different scaling powers.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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