Biologists of the University of Freiburg have used a spherical treadmill to investigate how desert ants navigate in a featureless environment. Cataglyphis desert ants live in salt pans and are ideal models for such navigation research. When they set out in search of food in their flat, bare, hostile environment, they are always able to find their way back to their nest via the shortest route possible using an internal navigation system. The biologists published their results in the Journal of Experimental Biology.