Go to the Ant, Sluggard
Ants are “superefficient” at
teamwork, a recent study shows
by John D. Wise, PhD
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” Proverbs 6:6–8 (ESV).
Long before biologists trained cameras and sensors on weaver ants, Scripture told us where to look for wisdom. Solomon pointed to ants as models of diligence and foresight. Now, an international team of scientists confirms that ants outperform humans in teamwork.
Superefficient teamwork in weaver ants, (Stewardson et al., Current Biology, September 8, 2025)
The study showed that weaver ants reverse the so-called “Ringelmann effect” — the tendency of human teams to lose efficiency as members slack off. With ants, the opposite happens: the more workers, the harder each one pulls. Rudy Molinek, a reporter for Smithsonian Magazine, puts it plainly:
… weaver ants … actually become more individually effective when collaborating in large teams. The insects team up to bend big leaves into shapes, forming ornate and multi-level homes. This process of increasing individual effort in group work is called “superefficiency.” (“Weaver Ants Use Teamwork to Become ‘Superefficient, Building Complex Nests From Leaves With Extra Pulling Power,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 14, 2025)
Division of Labor, Force Ratchets, and Anchors
To weave their leafy nests, ants form chains of living links. Some serve as active pullers, others as passive anchors, together forming a “force ratchet.” This ingenious design lets them sustain forces hundreds of times their body weight. In “The Surprising Ant Strategy that could transform robotics,” (Aug. 14, 2025), ScienceDaily reports:
“The ants split their work into two jobs: some actively pull while others act like anchors to store that pulling force,” says Stewardson…. Co-lead author Dr Daniele Carlesso … developed a theory called the ‘force ratchet’ to explain this mechanism. “Ants at the back of chains stretch out their bodies to resist and store the pulling force, while ants at the front keep actively pulling,” says Dr Carlesso. (“Tiny ants crack the secret to perfect teamwork,” Macquarie University Lighthouse, 12 August 2025, reposted by Science Daily).
At Popular Science, reporter Margherita Bassi drives home the contrast. While individual human effort declines in human teams:
“Each individual ant almost doubled their pulling force as team size increased – they actually get better at working together as the group gets bigger,” said Stewardson. (“Ants are better at teamwork than humans,” Popular Science, August 16, 2025)
Lessons for Engineers
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This is not just bug trivia. Engineers are studying ant teamwork as a template for swarm robotics, seeking to design machines that coordinate with the same effortless efficiency. In other words, real science looks to the optimized designs in nature — not to the invention of “bad design” stories to prop up Darwin.
Think of the so-called “backwards” wiring of the human retina, long paraded as a clumsy evolutionary accident. Careful study shows it is an optimal design, solving multiple engineering constraints at once. The same is true here: what looks simple in ants turns out to be sophisticated engineering worth copying.
The Ant Duo
Yesterday (24 Sept 2025) we reported on the bizarre reproductive habits of Messor ibericum, another ant that stretches the limits of scientific imagination. Now, with weaver ants, we see a different marvel: not reproduction but teamwork. Ants keep making science interesting — without Darwin’s help.
Darwinists love to lecture us about “bad design,” yet this assumes they know a bad design when they see it. They assume, that is, that they know more than it is reasonable to claim given the track record of human vs. natural design. There is a reason that technology increasingly turns to design in nature and biomimetics: God’s designs are better, even when we are arrogant enough to claim otherwise. Nature is a storehouse of brilliant engineering solutions. Solomon pointed us to the ant three thousand years ago. Darwin pointed us to chance.
Which “wisdom” is aging better?
John Wise received his PhD in philosophy from the University of CA, Irvine in 2004. His dissertation was titled Sartre’s Phenomenological Ontology and the German Idealist Tradition. His area of specialization is 19th to early 20th century continental philosophy.
He tells the story of his 25-year odyssey from atheism to Christianity in the book, Through the Looking Glass: The Imploding of an Atheist Professor’s Worldview (available on Amazon). Since his return to Christ, his research interests include developing a Christian (YEC) philosophy of science and the integration of all human knowledge with God’s word.
He has taught philosophy for the University of CA, Irvine, East Stroudsburg University of PA, Grand Canyon University, American Intercontinental University, and Ashford University. He currently teaches online for the University of Arizona, Global Campus, and is a member of the Heterodox Academy. He and his wife Jenny are known online as The Christian Atheist with a podcast of that name, in addition to a YouTube channel: John and Jenny Wise.