Ants and scientific progress

When ants move about they leave little chemical markers on the ground. If many ants follow the same, important path (say to food) they will create a strong trail for other ants to follow. Scholars do the same thing as they surf the web. Food is replaced by journal articles (including working papers) and chemical markers are replaced by word of math, blogs, etc. This article describes a study by scientists at the Santa Fe Institute which utitlizes data on scholars' browsing behavior to determine whither blow the winds of scientific inquiry (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090311124024.htm).