Collenger

Collenger is a minor character in Stanislaw Lem's Novel Fiasco.

He studied ants and termites. He conducted an experiment in which he inserted a steel plate into a termite mound.

"Are you acquainted with Collenger's experiment? It's considered nonsense. He was not, true, a myrmecologist, only an amateur. Cut through an entire termite mound from top to 'bottom and inserted a steel plate, so that the two halves could not communicate with each 'other in any way. The mound was young, the termites had only begun building it. After six 'weeks he removed the plate. It turned out that the new tunnels had been constructed in such a way that their mouths, on either side of the barrier, exactly corresponded—not a 'millimeter off, vertically or horizontally. Just as men build a tunnel, beginning the work simultaneously on both sides of the mountain and meeting in the middle. How did the termites communicate through the steel? "

Unnamed Professor