{"id":216952,"date":"2025-07-01T14:04:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T19:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/scientists-reprogram-ant-behavior-using-brain-molecules"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T19:04:56","slug":"scientists-reprogram-ant-behavior-using-brain-molecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/scientists-reprogram-ant-behavior-using-brain-molecules","title":{"rendered":"Scientists reprogram ant behavior using brain molecules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-reprogram-ant-behavior-using-brain-molecules.webp\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Leafcutter ants live in highly organized colonies where every ant has a job, and now researchers can flip those jobs like a switch. By manipulating just two neuropeptides, scientists can turn defenders into nurses or gardeners into leaf harvesters. These same molecular signals echo in naked mole-rats, revealing a deep evolutionary link in how complex societies function, even across species. The study also teases out a possible connection to insulin and longevity, hinting at new frontiers in understanding human behavior and lifespan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leafcutter ants live in highly organized colonies where every ant has a job, and now researchers can flip those jobs like a switch. By manipulating just two neuropeptides, scientists can turn defenders into nurses or gardeners into leaf harvesters. These same molecular signals echo in naked mole-rats, revealing a deep evolutionary link in how complex [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1878,385,269,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment","category-evolution","category-life-extension","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}