How I defend the rule of law

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ted.com

October 2014

Kimberley Motley

http://www.ted.com/talks/kimberley_motley_how_i_defend_the_rule_of_law?language=en

Let me tell you a story about a little girl named Naghma. Naghma lived in a refugee camp with her parents and her eight brothers and sisters. Every morning, her father would wake up in the hopes he'd be picked for construction work, and on a good month he would earn 50 dollars. The winter was very harsh, and unfortunately, Naghma's brother died and her mother became very ill. In desperation, her father went to a neighbor to borrow 2,500 dollars. After several months of waiting, the neighbor became very impatient, and he demanded that he be paid back. Unfortunately, Naghma's father didn't have the money, and so the two men agreed to a jirga. So, simply put, a jirga is a form of mediation that's used in Afghanistan's informal justice system. It's usually presided over by religious leaders and village elders, and jirgas are often used in rural countries like Afghanistan, where there's deep-seated resentment against the formal system. At the jirga, the men sat together and they decided that the best way to satisfy the debt would be if Naghma married the neighbor's 21-year-old son. She was six.

Now, stories like Naghma's unfortunately are all too common, and from the comforts of our home, we may look at these stories as another crushing blow to women's rights. And if you watched Afghanistan on the news, you may have this view that it's a failed state. However, Afghanistan does have a legal system, and while jirgas are built on long-standing tribal customs, even in jirgas, laws are supposed to be followed, and it goes without saying that giving a child to satisfy a debt is not only grossly immoral, it's illegal.

In 2008, I went to Afghanistan for a justice funded program, and I went there originally on this nine-month program to train Afghan lawyers. In that nine months, I went around the country and I talked to hundreds of people that were locked up, and I talked to many businesses that were also operating in Afghanistan. And within these conversations, I started hearing the connections between the businesses and the people, and how laws that were meant to protect them were being underused, while gross and illegal punitive measures were overused. And so this put me on a quest for justness, and what justness means to me is using laws for their intended purpose, which is to protect. The role of laws is to protect. So as a result, I decided to open up a private practice, and I became the first foreigner to litigate in Afghan courts. Throughout this time, I also studied many laws, I talked to many people, I read up on many cases, and I found that the lack of justness is not just a problem in Afghanistan, but it's a global problem. And while I originally shied away from representing human rights cases because I was really concerned about how it would affect me both professionally and personally, I decided that the need for justness was so great that I couldn't continue to ignore it. And so I started representing people like Naghma pro bono also.

Now, since I've been in Afghanistan and since I've been an attorney for over 10 years, I've represented from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to ambassadors to little girls like Naghma, and with much success. And the reason for my success is very simple: I work the system from the inside out and use the laws in the ways that they're intended to be used.

I find that achieving justness in places like Afghanistan is difficult, and there's three reasons. The first reason is that, simply put, people are very uneducated as to what their legal rights were, and I find that this is a global problem. The second issue is that even with laws on the books, it's often superseded or ignored by tribal customs, like in the first jirga that sold Naghma off. And the third problem with achieving justness is that even with good, existing laws on the books, there aren't people or lawyers that are willing to fight for those laws. And that's what I do: I use existing laws, often unused laws, and I work those to the benefits of my clients. We all need to create a global culture of human rights and be investors in a global human rights economy, and by working in this mindset, we can significantly improve justice globally.

Now let's get back to Naghma. Several people heard about this story, and so they contacted me because they wanted to pay the $2,500 debt. And it's not just that simple; you can't just throw money at this problem and think that it's going to disappear. That's not how it works in Afghanistan. So I told them I'd get involved, but in order to get involved, what needed to happen is a second jirga needed to be called, a jirga of appeals. And so in order for that to happen, we needed to get the village elders together, we needed to get the tribal leaders together, the religious leaders. Naghma's father needed to agree, the neighbor needed to agree, and also his son needed to agree. And I thought, if I'm going to get involved in this thing, then they also need to agree that I preside over it.

So, after hours of talking and tracking them down, and about 30 cups of tea, they finally agreed that we could sit down for a second jirga, and we did. And what was different about the second jirga is this time, we put the law at the center of it, and it was very important for me that they all understood that Naghma had a right to be protected. And at the end of this jirga, it was ordered by the judge that the first decision was erased, and that the $2,500 debt was satisfied, and we all signed a written order where all the men acknowledged that what they did was illegal, and if they did it again, that they would go to prison… Thanks… And most importantly, the engagement was terminated and Naghma was free. Protecting Naghma and her right to be free protects us.

Now, with my job, there's above-average amount of risks that are involved. I've been temporarily detained. I've been accused of running a brothel, accused of being a spy. I've had a grenade thrown at my office. It didn't go off, though. But I find that with my job, that the rewards far outweigh the risks, and as many risks as I take, my clients take far greater risks, because they have a lot more to lose if their cases go unheard, or worse, if they're penalized for having me as their lawyer. With every case that I take, I realize that as much as I'm standing behind my clients, that they're also standing behind me, and that's what keeps me going.

Law as a point of leverage is crucial in protecting all of us. Journalists are very vital in making sure that that information is given to the public. Too often, we receive information from journalists but we forget how that information was given. This picture is a picture of the British press corps in Afghanistan. It was taken a couple of years ago by my friend David Gill. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, since 2010, there have been thousands of journalists who have been threatened, injured, killed, detained. Too often, when we get this information, we forget who it affects or how that information is given to us. What many journalists do, both foreign and domestic, is very remarkable, especially in places like Afghanistan, and it's important that we never forget that, because what they're protecting is not only our right to receive that information but also the freedom of the press, which is vital to a democratic society.

Matt Rosenberg is a journalist in Afghanistan. He works for The New York Times, and unfortunately, a few months ago he wrote an article that displeased people in the government. As a result, he was temporarily detained and he was illegally exiled out of the country. I represent Matt, and after dealing with the government, I was able to get legal acknowledgment that in fact he was illegally exiled, and that freedom of the press does exist in Afghanistan, and there's consequences if that's not followed. And I'm happy to say that as of a few days ago, the Afghan government formally invited him back into the country and they reversed their exile order of him.

If you censor one journalist, then it intimidates others, and soon nations are silenced. It's important that we protect our journalists and freedom of the press, because that makes governments more accountable to us and more transparent. Protecting journalists and our right to receive information protects us.

Our world is changing. We live in a different world now, and what were once individual problems are really now global problems for all of us. Two weeks ago, Afghanistan had its first democratic transfer of power and elected president Ashraf Ghani, which is huge, and I'm very optimistic about him, and I'm hopeful that he'll give Afghanistan the changes that it needs, especially within the legal sector. We live in a different world. We live in a world where my eight-year-old daughter only knows a black president. There's a great possibility that our next president will be a woman, and as she gets older, she may question, can a white guy be president?

Our world is changing, and we need to change with it, and what were once individual problems are problems for all of us. According to UNICEF, there are currently over 280 million boys and girls who are married under the age of 15. Two hundred and eighty million. Child marriages prolong the vicious cycle of poverty, poor health, lack of education.

At the age of 12, Sahar was married. She was forced into this marriage and sold by her brother. When she went to her in-laws' house, they forced her into prostitution. Because she refused, she was tortured. She was severely beaten with metal rods. They burned her body. They tied her up in a basement and starved her. They used pliers to take out her fingernails. At one point, she managed to escape from this torture chamber to a neighbor's house, and when she went there, instead of protecting her, they dragged her back to her husband's house, and she was tortured even worse.

When I met first Sahar, thankfully, Women for Afghan Women gave her a safe haven to go to. As a lawyer, I try to be very strong for all my clients, because that's very important to me, but seeing her, how broken and very weak as she was, was very difficult. It took weeks for us to really get to what happened to her when she was in that house, but finally she started opening up to me, and when she opened up, what I heard was she didn't know what her rights were, but she did know she had a certain level of protection by her government that failed her, and so we were able to talk about what her legal options were.

And so we decided to take this case to the Supreme Court. Now, this is extremely significant, because this is the first time that a victim of domestic violence in Afghanistan was being represented by a lawyer, a law that's been on the books for years and years, but until Sahar, had never been used. In addition to this, we also decided to sue for civil damages, again using a law that's never been used, but we used it for her case. So there we were at the Supreme Court arguing in front of 12 Afghan justices, me as an American female lawyer, and Sahar, a young woman who when I met her couldn't speak above a whisper. She stood up, she found her voice, and my girl told them that she wanted justice, and she got it. At the end of it all, the court unanimously agreed that her in-laws should be arrested for what they did to her, her fucking brother should also be arrested for selling her — (Applause) — and they agreed that she did have a right to civil compensation. What Sahar has shown us is that we can attack existing bad practices by using the laws in the ways that they're intended to be used, and by protecting Sahar, we are protecting ourselves.

After having worked in Afghanistan for over six years now, a lot of my family and friends think that what I do looks like this. But in all actuality, what I do looks like this. Now, we can all do something. I'm not saying we should all buy a plane ticket and go to Afghanistan, but we can all be contributors to a global human rights economy. We can create a culture of transparency and accountability to the laws, and make governments more accountable to us, as we are to them.

A few months ago, a South African lawyer visited me in my office and he said, "I wanted to meet you. I wanted to see what a crazy person looked like." The laws are ours, and no matter what your ethnicity, nationality, gender, race, they belong to us, and fighting for justice is not an act of insanity. Businesses also need to get with the program. A corporate investment in human rights is a capital gain on your businesses, and whether you're a business, an NGO, or a private citizen, rule of law benefits all of us. And by working together with a concerted mindset, through the people, public and private sector, we can create a global human rights economy and all become global investors in human rights. And by doing this, we can achieve justness together. Thank you.

Glossary and Notes

her father would wake up ... = her father used to wake up

he demanded that he be paid back ... = he asked that sb paid him back

deep-seated (resentment) = firmly established at a deep or profound level, deep-rooted, fundamental, basic, settled, entrenched

crushing (blow) = smashing, shattering, crunching, violent

a blow = a knock, bang, hit, sock

a failed (state) = unsuccessful, collapsing, blown up

long-standing (customs) = well established, enduring, long-lived, persistent

it goes without saying = it is obvious

grossly (immoral) = totally, completely, entirely

to be locked up = to be imprisoned, held captive

a quest = a search, pursuit, pursuance

justness = fairness, justice, equity

to shy away (from sth) = to be averse to, be opposed, be reluctant to, disinclined to

(to work) pro bono = to do work voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee

attorney = lawyer, legal representative

to be superseded = to be replaced, supplanted, displaced, overthrown, overridden

to be willing = to be ready, prepared, disposed, inclined

mindset =  mentality, established set of attitudes held by a person

elders = old people, seniors

to erase = to delete, rub out, wipe out, scrape off, cancel

to acknowledge = to admit, accept, grant, allow, concede, appreciate, recognize

to run (a brothel) = to manage, be in charge of, head, direct, control

brothel = house of prostitution

(it didn't) go off = explode, fire

rewards = prizes, recompense, winnings, awards, benefits, payment

to outweigh = to be greater than, exceed, be superior, be heavier than, prevail over

to go unheard = to be unattended, not taken care of, not done

leverage = control, advantage, influence

to be accountable to sb = to be responsible to, reporting to, subject to

accountability = responsibility, liability, answerability

metal rod = metal stick, pole, cane

pliers = tool for holding small objects = pinzas

(a safe) haven = refuge, shelter, harbour

concerted (mindset) = coordinated, done with joined effort or determination

Now, paraphrase (= express the meaning using different words) the following sentences from the first paragraph of Ms Motley’s talk

Naghma

Let me tell you a story about a little girl named Naghma.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………............................................…………………….

Naghma lived in a refugee camp with her parents and her eight brothers and sisters.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Every morning, her father would wake up in the hopes he'd be picked for construction work, and on a good month he would earn 50 dollars.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The winter was very harsh, and unfortunately, Naghma's brother died and her mother became very ill.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In desperation, her father went to a neighbor to borrow 2,500 dollars.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After several months of waiting, the neighbor became very impatient, and he demanded that he be paid back.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Unfortunately, Naghma's father didn't have the money, and so the two men agreed to a jirga.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

So, simply put, a jirga is a form of mediation that's used in Afghanistan's informal justice system.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It's usually presided over by religious leaders and village elders, and jirgas are often used in rural countries like Afghanistan, where there's deep-seated resentment against the formal system.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

At the jirga, the men sat together and they decided that the best way to satisfy the debt would be if Naghma married the neighbor's 21-year-old son. She was six.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What ants teach us about the brain, cancer and the Internet

    

ted.com

March 2014

http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_gordon_what_ants_teach_us_about_the_brain_cancer_and_the_internet?language=en

I study ants in the desert, in the tropical forest and in my kitchen, and in the hills around Silicon Valley where I live. I've recently realized that ants are using interactions differently in different environments, and that got me thinking that we could learn from this about other systems, like brains and data networks that we engineer, and even cancer.

So what all these systems have in common is that there's no central control. An ant colony consists of sterile female workers -- those are the ants you see walking around — and then one or more reproductive females who just lay the eggs. They don't give any instructions. Even though they're called queens, they don't tell anybody what to do.

So in an ant colony, there's no one in charge, and all systems like this without central control are regulated using very simple interactions. Ants interact using smell. They smell with their antennae, and they interact with their antennae, so when one ant touches another with its antennae, it can tell, for example, if the other ant is a nest-mate and what task that other ant has been doing.

So here you see a lot of ants moving around and interacting in a lab arena that's connected by tubes to two other arenas. So when one ant meets another, it doesn't matter which ant it meets, and they're actually not transmitting any kind of complicated signal or message. All that matters to the ant is the rate at which it meets other ants. And all of these interactions, taken together, produce a network.

So this is the network of the ants that you just saw moving around in the arena, and it's this constantly shifting network that produces the behavior of the colony, like whether all the ants are hiding inside the nest, or how many are going out to forage. A brain actually works in the same way, but what's great about ants is that you can see the whole network as it happens.

There are more than 12,000 species of ants, in every conceivable environment, and they're using interactions differently to meet different environmental challenges. So one important environmental challenge that every system has to deal with is operating costs, just what it takes to run the system. And another environmental challenge is resources, finding them and collecting them. In the desert, operating costs are high because water is scarce, and the seed-eating ants that I study in the desert have to spend water to get water. So an ant outside foraging, searching for seeds in the hot sun, just loses water into the air. But the colony gets its water by metabolizing the fats out of the seeds that they eat. So in this environment, interactions are used to activate foraging.

An outgoing forager doesn't go out unless it gets enough interactions with returning foragers, and what you see are the returning foragers going into the tunnel, into the nest, and meeting outgoing foragers on their way out. This makes sense for the ant colony, because the more food there is out there, the more quickly the foragers find it, the faster they come back, and the more foragers they send out. The system works to stay stopped, unless something positive happens.

So interactions function to activate foragers. And we've been studying the evolution of this system. First of all, there's variation. It turns out that colonies are different. On dry days, some colonies forage less, so colonies are different in how they manage this trade-off between spending water to search for seeds and getting water back in the form of seeds. And we're trying to understand why some colonies forage less than others by thinking about ants as neurons, using models from neuroscience. So just as a neuron adds up its stimulation from other neurons to decide whether to fire, an ant adds up its stimulation from other ants to decide whether to forage. And what we're looking for is whether there might be small differences among colonies in how many interactions each ant needs before it's willing to go out and forage, because a colony like that would forage less.

And this raises an analogous question about brains. We talk about the brain, but of course every brain is slightly different, and maybe there are some individuals or some conditions in which the electrical properties of neurons are such that they require more stimulus to fire, and that would lead to differences in brain function.

So in order to ask evolutionary questions, we need to know about reproductive success. This is a map of the study site where I have been tracking this population of harvester ant colonies for 28 years, which is about as long as a colony lives. Each symbol is a colony, and the size of the symbol is how many offspring it had, because we were able to use genetic variation to match up parent and offspring colonies, that is, to figure out which colonies were founded by a daughter queen produced by which parent colony. And this was amazing for me, after all these years, to find out, for example, that colony 154, whom I've known well for many years, is a great-grandmother. Here's her daughter colony, here's her granddaughter colony, and these are her great-granddaughter colonies. And by doing this, I was able to learn that offspring colonies resemble parent colonies in their decisions about which days are so hot that they don't forage, and the offspring of parent colonies live so far from each other that the ants never meet, so the ants of the offspring colony can't be learning this from the parent colony. And so our next step is to look for the genetic variation underlying this resemblance.

So then I was able to ask, okay, who's doing better? Over the time of the study, and especially in the past 10 years, there's been a very severe and deepening drought in the Southwestern U.S., and it turns out that the colonies that conserve water, that stay in when it's really hot outside, and thus sacrifice getting as much food as possible, are the ones more likely to have offspring colonies. So all this time, I thought that colony 154 was a loser, because on really dry days, there would be just this trickle of foraging, while the other colonies were out foraging, getting lots of food, but in fact, colony 154 is a huge success. She's a matriarch. She's one of the rare great-grandmothers on the site. To my knowledge, this is the first time that we've been able to track the ongoing evolution of collective behavior in a natural population of animals and find out what's actually working best.

Now, the Internet uses an algorithm to regulate the flow of data that's very similar to the one that the harvester ants are using to regulate the flow of foragers. And guess what we call this analogy? The anternet is coming. So data doesn't leave the source computer unless it gets a signal that there's enough bandwidth for it to travel on. In the early days of the Internet, when operating costs were really high and it was really important not to lose any data, then the system was set up for interactions to activate the flow of data. It's interesting that the ants are using an algorithm that's so similar to the one that we recently invented, but this is only one of a handful of ant algorithms that we know about, and ants have had 130 million years to evolve a lot of good ones, and I think it's very likely that some of the other 12,000 species are going to have interesting algorithms for data networks that we haven't even thought of yet.

So what happens when operating costs are low? Operating costs are low in the tropics, because it's very humid, and it's easy for the ants to be outside walking around. But the ants are so abundant and diverse in the tropics that there's a lot of competition. Whatever resource one species is using, another species is likely to be using that at the same time. So in this environment, interactions are used in the opposite way. The system keeps going unless something negative happens, and one species that I study makes circuits in the trees of foraging ants going from the nest to a food source and back, just round and round, unless something negative happens, like an interaction with ants of another species.

So here's an example of ant security. In the middle, there's an ant plugging the nest entrance with its head in response to interactions with another species. Those are the little ones running around with their abdomens up in the air. But as soon as the threat is passed, the entrance is open again, and maybe there are situations in computer security where operating costs are low enough that we could just block access temporarily in response to an immediate threat, and then open it again, instead of trying to build a permanent firewall or fortress.

So another environmental challenge that all systems have to deal with is resources, finding and collecting them. And to do this, ants solve the problem of collective search, and this is a problem that's of great interest right now in robotics, because we've understood that, rather than sending a single, sophisticated, expensive robot out to explore another planet or to search a burning building, that instead, it may be more effective to get a group of cheaper robots exchanging only minimal information, and that's the way that ants do it.

So the invasive Argentine ant makes expandable search networks. They're good at dealing with the main problem of collective search, which is the trade-off between searching very thoroughly and covering a lot of ground. And what they do is, when there are many ants in a small space, then each one can search very thoroughly because there will be another ant nearby searching over there, but when there are a few ants in a large space, then they need to stretch out their paths to cover more ground. I think they use interactions to assess density, so when they're really crowded, they meet more often, and they search more thoroughly. Different ant species must use different algorithms, because they've evolved to deal with different resources, and it could be really useful to know about this, and so we recently asked ants to solve the collective search problem in the extreme environment of microgravity in the International Space Station.

When I first saw this picture, I thought, Oh no, they've mounted the habitat vertically, but then I realized that, of course, it doesn't matter. So the idea here is that the ants are working so hard to hang on to the wall or the floor or whatever you call it that they're less likely to interact, and so the relationship between how crowded they are and how often they meet would be messed up. We're still analyzing the data. I don't have the results yet. But it would be interesting to know how other species solve this problem in different environments on Earth, and so we're setting up a program to encourage kids around the world to try this experiment with different species. It's very simple. It can be done with cheap materials. And that way, we could make a global map of ant collective search algorithms. And I think it's pretty likely that the invasive species, the ones that come into our buildings, are going to be really good at this, because they're in your kitchen because they're really good at finding food and water.

So the most familiar resource for ants is a picnic, and this is a clustered resource. When there's one piece of fruit, there's likely to be another piece of fruit nearby, and the ants that specialize on clustered resources use interactions for recruitment. So when one ant meets another, or when it meets a chemical deposited on the ground by another, then it changes direction to follow in the direction of the interaction, and that's how you get the trail of ants sharing your picnic.

Now this is a place where I think we might be able to learn something from ants about cancer. I mean, first, it's obvious that we could do a lot to prevent cancer by not allowing people to spread around or sell the toxins that promote the evolution of cancer in our bodies, but I don't think the ants can help us much with this because ants never poison their own colonies. But we might be able to learn something from ants about treating cancer.

There are many different kinds of cancer. Each one originates in a particular part of the body, and then some kinds of cancer will spread or metastasize to particular other tissues where they must be getting resources that they need. So if you think from the perspective of early metastatic cancer cells as they're out searching around for the resources that they need, if those resources are clustered, they're likely to use interactions for recruitment, and if we can figure out how cancer cells are recruiting, then maybe we could set traps to catch them before they become established.

So ants are using interactions in different ways in a huge variety of environments, and we could learn from this about other systems that operate without central control. Using only simple interactions, ant colonies have been performing amazing feats for more than 130 million years. We have a lot to learn from them. Thank you.

Notes and Glossary

More information on the subject: http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_gordon_digs_ants?language=en

to engineer (data networks) = to mount, originate, manage, conduct

(to walk) around = in all directions, all over

to lay (eggs) = to put sth down gently and carefully     lay – laid – laid

to be in charge = to be in control, have overall responsibility

antenna /ænˈtenə/              PLURAL antennae /ænˈteni:/

nest = the place where an animal or insect breeds or shelters

(a nest-)mate = companion, friend

a lab arena = an place of observation (lab = laboratory)

rate = speed

whether = if

to forage = to search for food or provision

a forager = a harvester, gatherer

(every) conceivable (environment) = every possible/imaginable/feasible environment

challenge = difficult task, problem, trouble

resource = materials, assets, capital = recurso

scarce = scant, not enough, deficient, insufficient

seed = semilla

on their way out = in the process of leaving

to make sense = to be intelligible or practicable

to stay stopped = to cease operations

it turns out that ... = it happens that…

trade-off = a balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features, a compromise

to fire = [in this context] to activate, move, rouse, energize

to add up = to put together, , to join to sth else

to be willing = to be ready, prepared to do sth

to raise a question = to ask a question/an enquiry

to track = to follow, shadow, trail, pursue

(how many) offspring = children, progeny, youngsters, descendants

to match up = to relate, put together

to figure out = to decipher, understand, assess

great-granddaughter = bisnieta

underlying (variation) = unrevealed, undisclosed, latent, concealed, hidden

drought / draʊt/= dry period, lack of rain, shortage of water

thus = consequently, so, therefore, hence, because of this

trickle = a small flow , a drip

on the site = in the place, position, situation

to my knowledge = as far as I can see, as far as I am concerned

ongoing (evolution) = in progress, under way, continuing, happening, taking place

to find out = to discover a fact, come to know, learn, realize, recognize, see, fathom out

an algorithm = a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer

bandwidth = the transmission capacity of a computer network or other telecommunication system

width = abstract noun for wide = ancho

to set up (a system) = to establish, begin, get going, found, create

a handful = a small number, a few, not many

to plug (the entrance) =

threat = danger, menace, peril, hazard, risk

firewall = [in this context] a technological barrier

thoroughly = rigorously, in depth, exhaustively, closely, in detail, scrupulously

to stretch sth out = to extend, outstretch

to assess = to evaluate, gauge, estimate, check out, weigh up

to hang on to sth = to hold on to, cling on to ANTONYM let go of

to be messed up = to be spoilt, confused

clustered = crowded, huddled, packed together

nearby = not far away, close, near at hand

recruitment = the action of enlisting new people

trail (of ants) = a line, succession, string, train

(to set) traps = a device for catching animals and preventing their escape

feat = achievement, triumph, endeavour, deed = hazaña

Grammar and expressions

That got me thinking = That made me think

unless = if not

An outgoing forager doesn't go out unless it gets enough interactions with returning foragers.

The system works to stay stopped, unless something positive happens.

the more.... the more...

… the more food there is out there, the more quickly the foragers find it, the faster they come back, and the more foragers they send out.

Present Perfect after 'This is the first/second time....

… this is the first time that we've been able to track the ongoing evolution of collective behavior in a natural population of animals and find out what's actually working best.