Polio-free Nigeria, Ant Cooperation, and Tweet Takedowns

Vaccination programs have helped to eradicate polio in nearly all countries. (The United States has been free of the disease since 1979.) While transmission of the disease can still be found in three countries, Nigeria, included on that short list, could soon be declared polio-free. And a new study explains how crazy longhorn ants work together to move large objects without getting lost. Science journalist Brooke Borel, of Popular Science and the blog Our Modern Plagues, discusses these and other science stories in the news this week.

Plus, Twitter has started to delete jokes that have been reported as plagiarized. The tweet takedowns were first reported by the account @PlagiarismBad. In this week’s episode of Good Thing/Bad Thing, freelance journalist Luke O’Neil breaks down the good and bad of applying copyright claims to 140 characters.