Collective behavior as a research area investigates how large ensembles of interacting agents—such as cells, animals, humans, or artificial units—generate emergent spatiotemporal patterns and coordinated dynamics that cannot be trivially inferred from individual-level rules. It integrates concepts and methods from statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics, complex systems theory, network science, and computational modeling to characterize phenomena such as synchronization, swarming, flocking, consensus formation, and phase transitions in social or biological systems. Research focuses on identifying local interaction rules, quantifying macroscopic order parameters, understanding robustness and criticality, and developing predictive, often multi-scale, models of group-level organization and decision-making.
What determines which tasks bees perform in their colony? Biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main have investigated the role neural activity plays in this ...
Ecology
Jul 20, 2026
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568
Dragonflies are renowned for their remarkable flying abilities. Male dragonflies often compete for territory and mating opportunities, engaging in fascinating in-flight battles. Researchers at Imperial College London and ...
Large seabird colonies have a surrounding boundary known as Ashmole's halo, where food sources are depleted, forcing the birds to travel farther to gather the food they need. The reason seems obvious—the more birds, the more ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 15, 2026
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26
How do bees make group decisions without a leader? Math experts have determined that the best strategy is for a few to assume the risk of foraging under all conditions while the majority stay safely back and forage only when ...
Ecology
Jul 10, 2026
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88
Scientists observed spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) playing in the wild and found that their precise, sophisticated communication is on par with that of many primate species. Hyenas play and romp with one another at all ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2026
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20
Patients in hospitals generally trust the nursing staff. After all, they have undergone training and, in some cases, have several years of professional experience. In the case of carpenter ants, it is not nursing expertise ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 3, 2026
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22
Dark matter accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe, but scientists still do not know what it is made of. A study, published in Physical Review Letters, by Rice University researchers proposes a detector design that ...
General Physics
Jul 2, 2026
3
37
A new study by an international research team led by Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) has revealed striking similarities in the way humans and dogs interact ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 27, 2026
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424
When biologists study cooperation in animals, they usually offer just a single task at a time. But what happens when animals can choose among several opportunities to work together? Biologists at Utrecht University discovered ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 26, 2026
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11
Cells can spontaneously change shape even without external signals, but the underlying mechanisms behind this form of self-organization have remained unclear. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered self-propelled treadmilling ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 25, 2026
0
12
