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.
Earthworms often form a cluster, from which they can barely free themselves. A similarly active, writhing structure forms when the tentacles of lion's mane jellyfish become entangled. Robotic grippers utilize this principle ...
Soft Matter
Jun 16, 2025
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A Cornell research team has employed a variation of a theory first used to predict the collective actions of electrons in quantum mechanical systems to a much taller, human system—the National Basketball Association.
General Physics
Jun 16, 2025
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30
From the bright lights of cities that don't sleep—where people hustle and bustle through the night to keep subways, servers, and supply chains alive—to the whisper-dark understory of tropical forests where ants hum in ...
Ecology
Jun 16, 2025
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Among the tens of thousands of ant species, incredible "intelligent" behaviors like crop culture, animal husbandry, surgery, "piracy," social distancing, and complex architecture have evolved.
Plants & Animals
Jun 13, 2025
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109
Coordinated behaviors like swarming—from ant colonies to schools of fish—are found everywhere in nature. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have given a nod to ...
General Physics
Jun 10, 2025
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A research team led by Associate Prof. Wang Anting from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed a method for multidimensional manipulation of polarization ...
Optics & Photonics
May 29, 2025
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98
All-perovskite tandem solar cells (TSCs) are a class of solar cells comprised of two or more sub-cells that absorb light with different wavelengths, all of which are made of perovskites (i.e., materials with a characteristic ...
If you've ever watched a flock of birds move in perfect unison or seen ripples travel across a pond, you've witnessed nature's remarkable ability to coordinate motion. Recently, a team of scientists and engineers at Rice ...
General Physics
May 19, 2025
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Graphene is a "miracle material": mechanically extremely strong and electrically highly conductive, ideal for related applications. Using a unique method, physicists at the University of Vienna led by Jani Kotakoski have ...
Nanophysics
May 6, 2025
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31
From bird flocking to fish schooling, many biological systems exhibit some type of collective motion, often to improve performance and conserve energy. Compared to other swimmers, manta rays are particularly efficient, and ...
General Physics
May 6, 2025
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