Humans are not alone—they are only one of the many social animals inhabiting this planet. From the dolphins in our oceans to the bees in our trees, our biosphere is filled with social life. Social organisms are everywhere, and all the social behavior found scattered throughout the animal kingdom falls within the purview of a new field of study called social biology.

Social biology offers the potential for profound insights into human behavior. By cataloguing and seeking evolutionary rationale for the multitudinous social behaviors found in the animal world, social biology offers a new basis of comparison for the social behaviors found in humans. Social biology allows one to see how humans are similar—and the similarities are amazing—and different, from the other social organisms on our planet. Or insects, for that matter!

Would you believe that some insects have social lives? Eusocial insects, such as ants, bees, and wasps, may not put down a pint of beer at the bar when they get off of work, but sociality is nevertheless a critical component of their survival. Eusocial insects cannot live alone, and to the degree that this is so, one cannot speak of individual insects so much as the entire insect colony as the overarching organism.

Ant colonies, for example, can be comprised of thousands of individuals, yet together they form a meta-organism—“the Ant,” so to speak. Like other eusocial insects, ants form a collective, and their survival depends on the collaboration of all the individuals who comprise it. Ant queens cannot survive without workers to feed and protect them, and the genes of non-reproducing workers cannot survive without their egg-producing queen. Individual workers specialize in certain tasks so that it is only collectively that all the work necessary to sustain the colony can get done.

Ants are altruistic. Nursery workers selflessly take care of developing larva; adult ants will slow down in their search for food in order to teach novitiates how to follow them; and if the scouting party of a different ant tribe is discovered encroaching on the territory of the colony, workers will give their lives defending against the intruders. In these ways and more, ants act not so much like individuals but like the cells of a single super-organism, and it is this characteristic which has made ants one of the most successful insect species on the face of the earth.

Eusocial Group seeks to draw insights from these fascinating insects, along with other creatures from the wider realm of social biology, in order to create a social network of humans where friendship, cooperation, and altruism are used to advance their world. We hope you would consider joining Eusocial Group and adding your talents and abilities to the mix. Similar to ants, by working together we can super-enhance our ability to transform the planet and live better lives in the process!