Starling Flocks Behave Like Flying Magnets

[n2doc]

By Brandon Keim
March 13, 2012 | 2:56 pm | Categories: Animals, Physics




To achieve their extraordinary coordination, starling flocks in flight behave mathematically like metals becoming magnetized, researchers say.

The same group previously described aspects of starling flocking with equations used to describe avalanches. The birds’ aerial formations don’t just transcend biology, but span multiple physical phenomena.

“They are an example of a system where collective phenomena emerge from short-range interactions. This is the kind of phenomenon that statistical physicists are used to dealing with,” said statistical physicist Irene Giardina of the University of Rome, co-author of a March 13 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences starling study.


Though flocks of common starlings — murmurations of Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris, in technical and taxonomical parlance — can be found across North America and western Europe, Rome’s flocks are renowned for their size, making them natural subjects for Giardina’s team.


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http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/starling-flock-dynamics/

[nenagh]

1. Thank you, n2doc..

Video is amazing... .. Wonder what other systems are organized in a like manner...