The physics behind how fire ants band together into robust floating “rafts”

Many things about the animal world fascinate David Hu. He's won awards and gained attention for his studies on everything from mammal urination and defecation, to this research involving fire ants and how they build rafts out of their bodies when floodwaters rise. Hu, an associate professor in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Physics, and his team found different fluid behaviors, such as vortexes, could change the size of the fire ant raft in several ways. Hu and members of his team presented at the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics 72nd Annual Meeting in late November.