We often think of war as a strictly human phenomenon, but there are plenty of structured territorial battles that go on within the animal kingdom. Ants, in particular, engage in highly complex warfare, including "slave-making" (raiding other species' nests to steal young) and large-scale territorial conflicts between colonies.

In fact, there is one ant battle that’s gone on for so long that experts think it might be the longest non-human conflict in the world.

As explained by a video posted by Michael McBride, creator of the “edutainment” social media channel @IdeaSoup, this ongoing conflict spans a whopping 600 miles of the California coast. The main antagonist, if you will, is a "super colony" of Argentine ants, which have a unique set of superpowers.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

For one thing, Argentine ants ignore other nests of the same species. They also support several queens, rather than one. This allows them to create massive interconnected, cooperative colonies that span across continents.

In fact, they “co-colonized” alongside the Europeans during a “peak point” of colonization. ”The earliest record of the Argentine ant in the United States specifically is from around 1890, when ships carrying sugar from Argentina landed in New Orleans. They traversed 2,000 miles to reach the Golden State sometime around 1905, and have been waging war ever since. Some believe that the Argentine ant is the only non-human species capable of such widespread “globalization,” according to McBride. They are technically the largest society in the world.

The warfare that goes on between Argentine ants and other super colonies is "surprisingly complex," said McBride, with defined frontlines on which 30 million ants die every year. And yet, the Argentine ants have the upper hand in their ability to unite. They might not have the size that some species possess, nor large mandibles, nor a stinger for weaponry, but they do have relentless aggression, overwhelming numbers, and extreme organization.

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That, and their proclivity for chemical warfare. A major strategy Argentine ants implement is spraying toxic chemicals onto their enemies, which disorients the victim and marks them for other Argentine ants. A mob then surrounds the prey, pins them down, and dismembers them.

Showing that their greed knows no bounds, Argentine ants also rather easily take down spiders, flies, and other native insects. And when those resources are exhausted, they might find themselves in our own homes. Yes, these are the ants we might see lurking in our pet food bowls, kitchens, and dumpsters.

"The sun never sets on the Argentine Ant Empire." Kurzgesagt, YouTube

Gardens are a particularly precarious place for Argentine ants to dwell, because, get this, they are apparently capable of making negotiations with aphids. In exchange for the aphid's sweet secretion (yuck), Argentine ants will kill off their predators.

However, while Argentine ants have won many, many battles in California, they might not yet win the war. Some of their factions have broken off and formed their own empires, resulting in civil war and compromising their most winning strategy.

That, and fire ants, which also came from South America by way of Alabama, are a formidable foe, both in aggression and the ability to super-colonize. They're also larger in size and have venomous stingers. Basically, the war they waged in their homeland has now been moved to foreign lands. Who shall become the ultimate victor is still up to fate. Are you not entertained?!

Special thanks to @ideasoup on Instagram and Kurzgesagt on YouTube.

Nearly every parent hopes their child will be better off than they are: smarter, more secure, and more well-adjusted. Many parents see this as a stamp of successful parenting, but something has changed for children growing up today. While younger generations are known for their empathy, their cognitive capabilities seem to be lagging behind those of previous generations for the first time in history.

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning, appeared before Congress to discuss concerns about cognitive development in children. In his address to the members of Congress, he says, "A sad fact that our generation has to face is this: our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age. Since we've been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents, and that's exactly what we want. We want sharper kids."

Student smiling in a classroom, working on a laptop.Photo credit: Canva

Horvath explains that the reason this happens is that each generation has gone to school longer than the previous generation. Gen Z is no exception to the longer duration of time spent in school, but they're the first ones who aren't meeting this normal increase in cognitive development. According to the cognitive neuroscientist, the decline is due to the introduction of screens in the classroom, which started around 2010.

"Across 80 countries, as Jean was just saying, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly. To the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school," Horvath reveals.

In most cases, the decline in performance doesn't result in better strategies. The neuroscientist shares that the standardized testing has been adjusted to accommodate lower expectations and shorter attention spans. This is an approach that educators, scientists, and researchers went to Capitol Hill to express wasn't working. But not every country is taking the approach of lowering standards to meet lowered cognitive ability. Denmark went in the opposite direction when it realized their students were slipping behind.

France24 recently interviewed educators in Denmark following their seemingly novel approach to students struggling with cognitive development. Since the beginning of the 2025/2026 school year, Denmark has not only been having students turn in their cellphones, but they've also taken tablets, laptops, and computers out of the classroom. No more digital learning for the majority of the school day. Danes went old school by bringing back physical textbooks, workbooks, and writing assignments. The results have been undeniable. Even the students can't seem to deny the success of the countrywide shift in educational approach.

"I think the biggest issue has been that, because we kind of got rid of the books and started using screens instead, that we've noticed that a lot of the kids have trouble concentrating, so it's pretty easy to swipe with three fingers over to a different screen and have a video game going, for example, in class," Copenhagen English teacher, Islam Dijab........

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