These include the clonal raider ant, Ooceraea biroi, and ants of the genus Leptothorax, both of which possess evolutionarily relevant genetic variation that can be studied in a laboratory context. Some species, such as the red imported fire ant, (RIFA) are serious pests than can drive down property values and launch serious, sometimes fatal attacks on. They typically lack wings and are smaller than the insects in those groups, but like bees and wasps, many ants can sting. We accomplish this by adopting new model organisms that are ideally suited for mechanistic laboratory research. Ants are insects in the same order as wasps and bees (Hymenoptera). In our lab we attempt to understand sophisticated features of ant biology from the perspective of molecular genetics and evolutionary developmental biology. Also similar to cells, the ants in a colony typically differentiate into a germ line (the reproductive queen caste) and a soma (the non-reproductive worker caste(s)) via phenotypic plasticity. In ants, this is achieved via a wide range of pheromones. Like cells, group behavior in ants is orchestrated by continuous communication between individuals. An ant colony is therefore analogous to a unitary organism, like a plant or animal, whose cells cooperate to form a larger whole. Hermopolis was the spot where the chaos gods brought forth life or the sun or whatever, and then later became an important city for the international set, with layers of temples from different religions, and cultural artifacts from the Greeks and Romans.A colony of ants is a superorganism: each individual depends on and contributes to the function of the group. Hermopolis (Megale) is a Greek name for this important city of Upper Egypt. Although the Ogdoad may not actually be the oldest Egyptian cosmology, the gods and goddesses of it, are thought to have produced gods and goddesses of the Ennead of Heliopolis. They may have produced a mass or an egg or the sun. Johnson's way of perceiving 'pacemaker' seems too narrow, as he mentions that a pacemaker is a central authority figure. Johnson debunks the idea of a top down leadership and sheds light on the emergence of the self-organizing systems in our society. Together they produced the world, but exactly what they produced varied with the telling, more so than the variation in the powers of the 8 chaotic deities. In his essay 'The Myth of the Ant Queen,' Steven Johnson seemingly disregards the notion of pacemaker, labeling it as fake and a myth. The 8 gods of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad were mated pairs from a primordial chaos. Courtesy of Maps of Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and Neighboring Lands Go to the hyper-linked articles for more information and the references.Īncient Egypt, from The Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography by Samuel Butler, Ernest Rhys, editor (Suffolk, 1907, repr. Here you'll find information related to the 3 main Egyptian creation myths and the major gods.
In The Power of the Context, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the. Steven Johnson in The Myth of the Ant Queen talks about the pattern which were used to develop organized complexity.
Two of the versions below have a sun god as the creator. In Mega Marketing of Depression, Ethan Watters talks about how culture of depression was evolved in Japan. Tobin says the different and seemingly conflicting creation myths were but different sets of symbols used to "articulate the same reality," rather than factual accounts of how the universe emerged. One result of the long, heterogeneous history of Egyptian power is great variety in the myths of ancient Egypt. The world would continue its orderly progression regardless of whether or not we mere mortals lived or died, although the kings and queens, as incarnations of the gods, counted, and religious rites symbolically helped maintain the order.ĭuring the millennia during which ancient Egypt was a Mediterranean power to be reckoned with, different dynasties came to power, some African, some Asian, and later, the Greeks and Romans.
Egyptian cosmogonies were more about explaining the order of the world (personified as Ma'at), especially the rising of the sun and the flooding of the Nile, than the creation of mankind.