Read this fascinating New York Times story on ant-plant mutualism, which features our own Marjorie Weber, EEB Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies: 

 

"...Marjorie Weber, observed that historically, the study of interactions between species has focused on competition, predation and parasitism — the notion that nature is red in tooth and claw.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “There’s lots of great research on cooperation, but the thing that set this one apart is that it was demonstrating how species could engage with multiple partners in a stable way.”

“For a plant that can’t move, being able to create a home for the ants so that they give services is such an incredibly cool innovation,” Dr. Weber added. “It’s like using this amazing built-in army.”"