radio : emergence

Radiolab

What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony.

This hour of Radiolab, we ask how this happens.
We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, and even our very own brains with fire-flyologists, ant experts, neurologists, a mathematician, and an economist.





LINK to Radiolab: Emergence



SYNCHRONIZING FIREFLIES
In Radiolabs epsisode Emergence they talked about the synchronizing firefleis in Southeast Asia. But in the Great Smoky Mountains (US) you can also find a firefly specie – the Photinus Carolinus – that has the remarkable ability to synchronize their flashing abdomens.




It this subject interests you, you might want to read Sync, by Steven Strogatz.