Smart Swarm: Using Animal Behaviour to Organise Our World

Peter Miller

A fascinating lesson in how much we still have to learn from nature.

Read by 30 million people across the globe, acclaimed writer Peter Miller's groundbreaking National Geographic article showed us some of the important lessons to be learnt from the behaviour of animals. Now, in Smart Swarm, Miller shares his fascinating concept, exploring the habits, actions and instincts of the animal kingdom, and demonstrating how these remarkable strategies can help us to organise our world.

In Smart Swarm, Miller delves into the world of ants, fish, bees and birds to reveal how their intricate group behaviour can teach humans to organise, systematise, and problem-solve more effectively. Using animals as the starting point for each chapter, he throws up questions about some of our most integral systems: How can a group of Wall Street executives fail to make efficient business decisions when a swarm of honeybees can make a critical decision about their hive in just a few seconds? Why do large crowds of people turn into a chaotic mob when hundreds of reindeer are able act to together as a single herd? Why should commuters endure gridlocked traffic jams when a school of herring can coordinate its movements so precisely that it can change direction in the flash of a second?

Miller translates his observations into formulae that could untangle some of the knottiest problems in business, entertainment, science and transport.

Includes:

• How techniques borrowed from an Argentine ant colony can give clues on relieving airport congestion.
• How termite hills have inspired environmentally-friendly climate control solutions in skyscrapers.
• How the US military has developed anti-terrorism robots that mimic the behaviour of fish.
• How companies in the U.S. and Europe have learnt from ant behaviour to speed up telephone networks, to route delivery trucks, and to organise fast food restaurants.

304 pages.

Hardback £18.99 £14.99

Softback £8.99 £7.99