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X Demographics
Mendeley readers
Attention Score in Context
| Title |
Fermat’s Principle of Least Time Predicts Refraction of Ant Trails at Substrate Borders
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
PLOS ONE, March 2013
|
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0059739 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Jan Oettler, Volker S. Schmid, Niko Zankl, Olivier Rey, Andreas Dress, Jürgen Heinze |
| Abstract |
Fermat's principle of least time states that light rays passing through different media follow the fastest (and not the most direct) path between two points, leading to refraction at medium borders. Humans intuitively employ this rule, e.g., when a lifeguard has to infer the fastest way to traverse both beach and water to reach a swimmer in need. Here, we tested whether foraging ants also follow Fermat's principle when forced to travel on two surfaces that differentially affected the ants' walking speed. Workers of the little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, established "refracted" pheromone trails to a food source. These trails deviated from the most direct path, but were not different to paths predicted by Fermat's principle. Our results demonstrate a new aspect of decentralized optimization and underline the versatility of the simple yet robust rules governing the self-organization of group-living animals. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 30 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 6 | 20% |
| Korea, Republic of | 3 | 10% |
| India | 1 | 3% |
| Chile | 1 | 3% |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 3% |
| Switzerland | 1 | 3% |
| Australia | 1 | 3% |
| France | 1 | 3% |
| Finland | 1 | 3% |
| Other | 1 | 3% |
| Unknown | 13 | 43% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 22 | 73% |
| Scientists | 7 | 23% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 79 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 3 | 4% |
| Germany | 2 | 3% |
| Brazil | 2 | 3% |
| Israel | 1 | 1% |
| Spain | 1 | 1% |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 69 | 87% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 23% |
| Researcher | 14 | 18% |
| Other | 10 | 13% |
| Student > Master | 8 | 10% |
| Professor | 4 | 5% |
| Other | 16 | 20% |
| Unknown | 9 | 11% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 28 | 35% |
| Physics and Astronomy | 16 | 20% |
| Computer Science | 4 | 5% |
| Neuroscience | 3 | 4% |
| Mathematics | 3 | 4% |
| Other | 15 | 19% |
| Unknown | 10 | 13% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 77. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 August 2023.
All research outputs
#553,305
of 25,378,162 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#7,597
of 220,604 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,666
of 210,130 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#163
of 5,448 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,378,162 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 220,604 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 210,130 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5,448 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.