Uncovering the pressures that drive this self-sacrifice could shed light on the evolution of altruism, Kaspari added. Well, I don't think "altruism" within an

Uncovering the pressures that drive this self-sacrifice could shed light on the evolution of altruism, Kaspari added. Well, I don't think "altruism" within an ant colony has much to do with altruism in other species. Worker ants have no way of passing on their genes, they're just programmed to do whatever it takes to preserve the copies of those same genes within the reproducing members of the colony. Altruism in animals with their own individual reproductive potential is a much more interesting problem.