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According to the scientists, it is a known fact that the ants can use their bodies by getting into a bind to form real live structures. They can group together protect themselves against floods or span gaps by building bridges from their bodies. They are also capable of forming into a temporary shelter that can house the queen ant and its offspring in a state of emergency. As per the latest research, group of ants possess physical characteristics that resemble solid and liquid states, says Popular Mechanics.

However, it is not only their physical abilities that has caught fancy of the scientists. It has been observed that when the army ants, of the genus Eciton, want to gather food in the Amazon, they not only sack the existing colonies of insects but also form living bridges in absolute straight lines to and from their colony. But that means, the efficiency of the ants decrease as fewer ants are now involved in gathering food and the ants know when they arrive at a point of equilibrium, as reported by Smithsonian Mag.

An experiment was carried out in Panama by Christopher Reid at the University of Sydney. The ants were made to follow a zig-zag pattern by using the pheromones helping them navigate. The gaps were installed on their paths and one ant would be seen sacrificing its body to bridge the gap and the other ants would follow suit, reducing the line of gatherers. As a result, the line grows shorter and at some point, more ants are needed for the bridge and the number of ants remaining to carry food become fewer. Reid hypothesized that the ants determined whether to stay a part of the bridge or not from the number of times it is touched. Reid is planning to pair up with a Harvard based scientist, Radhika Nagpal, to explore the potential of using ant's behavior into building tiny robots, reports Popular Mechanics.