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.
Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses? The famous question, though implausible, reflects a ubiquitous tradeoff between quantity and quality. Now, a study shows that this dilemma operates in biology ...
Evolution
Dec 19, 2025
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100
Ultrashort laser pulses—that are shorter than a millionth of a millionth of a second—have transformed fundamental science, engineering and medicine. Despite this, their ultrashort duration has made them elusive and difficult ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 18, 2025
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32
Just as humans have historically gathered during winter, many animals do the same. Animals may not be exchanging presents or decorating their nests and dens but a lot of species become more social in winter—even ones that ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 16, 2025
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A new study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Marine Megafauna Foundation finds that young Caribbean manta rays (Mobula yarae) often swim with groups of other ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 15, 2025
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24
Every clonal raider ant lives a nearly identical life. Each new generation of these blind, queenless ants is born at the same time, eats the same things, lives in the same environment, and—as an asexually reproducing species—has ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 10, 2025
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45
A collaboration between the University of Konstanz and Forschungszentrum Jülich has achieved the first fully tunable experimental realization of a long predicted "swarmalator" system. The study, published in Nature Communications, ...
General Physics
Dec 10, 2025
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22
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have discovered the adaptive significance of the remarkable waste-management behavior in the social spider mite Stigmaeopsis longus, a tiny herbivorous arthropod that lives in cooperative ...
Evolution
Dec 4, 2025
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37
Bumble bees respond to physical disturbance of their nest with a sequence of defensive behaviors that lasts up to 10 minutes, according to a study by Sajedeh Sarlak at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and colleagues.
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2025
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76
Ant colonies operate as tightly coordinated "superorganisms" with individual ants working together, much like the cells of a body, to ensure their collective health. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 2, 2025
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2
Cancer is a common disease among mammals, but some species, such as the naked mole rat and elephants, have evolved resistance. According to new research published in the journal Science Advances, this may be because these ...
