Full Seminar Details
Dr. Ewan Colman
This event took place on Monday 10 December 2018 at 11:30
The study of relationships within animal groups has provided many insights into the nature of social behavior. Despite this, finding a reliable measure of sociality that can be used to compare animal systems is an ongoing challenge. While investigating how behavior affects the spread of infectious diseases in an ant colony, my colleagues and I found a novel way to quantify the amount of social mixing that occurs within the ant population. We found that this measure could also be applied to data from a range of systems including sharks, bats, humans, and monkeys. In this presentation I will introduce our method and demonstrate how it can be used to compare social behavior across different animal societies. I will also discuss how this analysis improves our understanding of the connection between social behavior and the transmission of infectious diseases.
Maven of the Month
We are also inviting top experts in AI and Knowledge Technologies to discuss major socio-technological topics with an audience that comprises both members of the Knowledge Media Institute, as well as the wider staff at The Open University. Differently from our seminar series, these events follow a Q&A format.
