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Show i ANN LANDERS/B.2 mi COMICS/B4 WM TELEVISION/BS DAYRRR, Section B The Salt Lake Tribune REVIEWS HEALTH & SCIENCE Depeche Mode, ‘A Tuna Christmas '/B-3, B-6 THURSDAY, DECEMBER3, 1998 EAB aay 2 Anis are fast & efficient - may humans shoul actlike insect BY SUE GOETINCK DALLAS MORNING NEWS The world could bea very efficient place if morepeople would just stick their heads in the sand — andtake a lookat all the ants. ‘To most of us, ants are merely a nuisance. Butto a handfulofscientists who wantto im- prove airplane travel, telecommunications networks and Internet traffic, ants are pure inspiration. Theidea is simple. Ants do someprettyintricate tasks. Even without the benefit oftraining seminars or personal organizers, thousands of ants can figure out how to cooperate to build colonies, find food, tend to their young and removetheir dead. Scientists think if they can learn how the ants do so much and adaptso well, they might be able to apply the sameinsights to the world of humans. Andsince ants have had millions of yearsto perfecttheir skills, imitating them is a risk worth taking, scientists say. “They are a very successful family, and it’s worth paying attention to them,” said Craig Tovey, a computerscientist andbiologistat the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “Theycertainly are coping with an uncertain world.” Developingartificial devices based on na- ture is not a new ideafor scientists, said Eric Bonabeau, a computerscientistat the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico who studiesants. Scientists working on radar have studied echolocation in dolphins. And the brain inspired researchers to create computer programs called neural networks. = Buttheidea ofstudyingantsto help stream- line the lives of people has been around for less than a decade. Only a few dozenscientists aroundthe world, mostof them in Europe,are working in thefield, knownas ant-colony opti- mization. Thefirst conference ever on the topic was held just last month in Brussels, Bel- gium. Andwhilescientists outside the small field aren't familiar enoughwithit to predict howit Utah lemurs hit bumps onroad to freedom will pan out, they find the idea intriguing, “The promisethatI really see in what these guys are doingis that they're hopefully discayering some general principles thatthe ants ap- pearto be following,” Tovey said. “And that these principles are ways of dealing with com- plex problemsandwith a lot ofuncertainty.” Oneof the ants’ most valuable skills — at least to the computer scientists — is the ability to find the quickest route between twopoints. Even when an obstacle — suchas fallen stick or a puddie — suddenly appears, ants are undaunted and quickly find the next-best path These ant-size problems haveparallels in the world of humans. Whentelephone calls travel fromcoast to coast, they may be routed through several nodes on the net k. But if telephone traffic ties up a particular node, sometimesit’s necessary to reroute calls. The same goes for Internet traffic, or even airplanesaffected by bad weather in a particular city. Theants’ solution to coping with traffic jams is te plan ahead, Bonabeausaid. When ants go marching — carrying food or cleaning out their nest, for instance — they deposit a trail of chemicals called pheromones. Other ants can sets up a backupplan.”” That kind of adaptability is what’s needed in follow that trail. But while most of the ants are following the main pheromone route, a few routing traffic through the unpredictable Internet, said Marco Dorigo,a computerscienti: tions, also depositing pheromonesas theygo. at the Free University of Brussels. For instance, he said, it’s impossible to predict what Internet traffic will be between Boston and ants stray from the path and explore other opSoif traffic jams, the ants are prepared. “Theymaintain a set of alternateroutesall of the time,” Bonabeau said. “This exploring lemurs were released. ‘Sonic’ boom may not The group plansto repatriate 20 lemurs, which are considered the most critically endangered of primates, by the project’s end. mean cleaner teeth Dawn and Jupiterleft Salt Lake City last June for Durham, N.C., where they spent five months at Duke Univer- BY SUSAN KREIMER sity’s Primate Center DES MOINES REGISTER “boot camp,” preparing BY JOAN O’BRIE ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE After nearly a week in the forest of Madagascar's Betampona Natural Reserve, two black-and-white ruffed lemurs from Hogle Zoo are adapting to life outside a cage. Butthe transition to freedom hasnot been smooth for Dawnand Jupiter, Friday, just hours after leaving her cage, Jupiter fell from a tree and ran off in a panic, says Charlie Welch, the Ruffed Lemur Release Project director. Fortunately, branches broke herfall and she wasnot injured. A project research crew recaptured Jupiter and she spent that night back in a cage. Her sister, Dawn, fared better and spent the first night in the trees as she should — lemursare “arboreal” and spend mostoftheir lives in the rainforest canopy where theyare safest. “In the first week of a release the ruffed lemurs tend to at times becomefrightened and flee pell mell,”” Welch wrote Wednesdayin an e-mail to The Salt Lake Tribune. “We are now a weekinto this release and the animals have remained calm forthe last four days.” The animals’ release last week is part of the Madagascar Fauna Group's three-year effort to increasetheisland nation’s wild population of endangered lemurs by drawing from zoos. Only about 30 wild lemursareleft in forlife in the wild. In October, they were flown to Madagascar and placed in a holding cage, where they were monitored for a two- week quarantine. They Rick Egan/TheSalt Lake Tribune Daughters of this Hogle Zoo lemur were repatriated to Madagascar. then were moved to a habituation cage, where they were paired with Barney,a third lemur from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s conservation center on St. Catherine’sIsland in Georgia. The fourth lemur, Tri- sha, was released Thanksgiving Day withoutincident, Welch says. Whenthe time comesfor the animals’ release, Welch and project crew memberssimply opentheir cage door. The lemurs emerge when theyfeel ready Welch says Dawn, Jupiter and Barney readily climbed out of their cagesand into the trees “and actually acted quite at home.” But soon Jupiter encountered trouble. Barney wasbounding throughthetree canopy, and the twins tried to follow. But there was a point where they could not cross.Jupiterfell, then panicked andranoffas rain began to pour down. Inexplicably, Barneyalso pan- icked andran off on the ground. Only Dawn stayed put “Whenthe animals panic, especially in the early days, they tend to come to the ground for some reason — not goodsinceit puts them atrisk from predators,” Welch the Betampona Natural Reserve of Madagascar, their says. Dawn and Jupiter — whose parents remain at Hogle Zoo — are among four lemurs released Friday in the second phaseof the restocking project. Last year, five was a concern to Welch and others on the crew. After a ancestral home. But some 900 are housedin zoos around the world. See ANTS,Page B-2 At hoot camp, Dawn and Jupiter appeared uncomfortable in the trees of the forested training enclosure, which See UTAH LEMURS,Page B-2 Move over, Mr, Manual Toothbrush Your electric competitors are hereto sta Almost 1 in 8 American homes ha least one oral powertool, according to 1.8. News and World Report. Electric tooth brushes account for $184 million in sales. or about one-fourth of the total toothbrush market — and they'restill edging upward Soit’s not surprising that the gadgets makers keep brushing up on technology and adding one sa y design component after another. For example, Optiva Corp.'s Sonicare sonic toothbrush comes with the “smar. timer” automatic shut-off feature that lets you knowwhenit’s OK to stop cleaning. Another feature, the ‘“quadpacer,” beeps every 30 seconds to remind youto move to another section of the mouth. “Right-handed peopletendtospenda lot more time brushing the left sideof their mouth,” says Willi Ellis, a consultant to Bellevue, Wash.-based Optivaand a dental hygienist in Aspen, Colo. “The quadpacer ensures that you get even and thorough brushingin all areas.” Meanwhile, Teledyne WaterPik of Fort Collins, Colo., makes the SenSonic Plaque Removal Instrument, which liver 30,000 brush strokes per minute, stimulates toothpaste into a bubbling-action foam and reduces coffee, tea and tobacco stains. It seems “‘sonic’’ has become the buzz- word in oral hygiene these days — as if vibrating sound andsuperspeedare synonymouswith clean. Are they? Phillip Davis, a dentist and public-information officer for the Iowa Academy of General Dentistry, has a mixed view. “Nobodyof scientific evidence exists yet to show that any one type of toothbrush design is better at removing plaque than another,” says Davis, “The only thing that mattersis that you brush your teeth. “Since most of the time people don't brush long enough, theelectric toothbrushes are nice because they may add some motivation. They're novel, and a lot of them have timers built in. They can cover more area faster, and they're definitely an advantage for someone whohaslimited man- ualdexterity.” The opposite is also true: Electric tooth- brushes work well for “overvigorous brushers” because the gadgets apply steady, uniform pressureonthe teeth, says hygienist Nancy Slach, who teaches at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. Too much pressure can cause receding gums. Automatic toothbrushesalso could bene- fit patients with periodontal diseaseorgingivitis, as well as those with orthodontic braces, dental implants, crowns or bridges, experts say. That’s becausetheelectric de- vices can reach in some hard-to-clean places where their manual counterparts can’t. See ‘SONIC’ BOOM,Page B-2 |
