Most humans are familiar with the responsibilities and challenges of day-to-day life, such as childcare, illness, housekeeping and traffic jams. It may come as a surprise that ants — those six-legged creatures that creep into our kitchens in search of tasty treats — share many of the same concerns. An expert in social insect ecology, University of Vermont associate professor and Department of Biology chair Sara Helms Cahan is no stranger to the similarities and differences between ant and human behavior. In her talk “Life in the Little City,” the scholar examines how these industrious insects demonstrate universal truths about social life.
