Blobs that swarm spark ‘it’s alive’ hypegasm A group of scientists led by New York University’s Jérémie Palacci has demonstrated the swarming behaviour of clickbait headline-writers by showing off inanimate objects that swarm a little like living cells. It’s not even close to life – as Palacci himself tells New Scientist, “even though the particles have no social …
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The answer was that the sheep in the flock aren't moving together, they are each just trying to get as far away as possible from the outside edge of the flock and into the centre where there is less chance of being eaten by a predator. And yes I strongly suspect that a simple rule like that could be expressed mathematically.
Icon shows a deerstalker: deer herd too, presumably for the same reason.
It's actual surface tension. The University of Nottingham does much better work (or should that be, uses less humbo jumbo language) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uWps9LczH8&feature=share&list=UUvBqzzvUBLCs8Y7Axb-jZew
It has nothing to do with "life" or "flocking" and everything to do with maths and physics. Flocking may use a similar mathematics, but it's a different mechanism (chemical/electrical feedback), where as particles are impact and friction forces.
but since you guys in the media keep falling for it, what's a scientist to do?
There's shed loads of non-pr science all over the place. Various open-access journals, the arxiv, etc. Why not pick an interesting non-pr title and sned some emails, make some calls? Or, just keep on checking those press releases.
Generally, Richard Chirgwin writeups are pretty good. But the any fault for reporting of "hypegasms" (as opposed to for constructing them) belongs to the reporter or media outlet. But then, at the Reg, a HYPEGASM is newsworthy in itself :-)
"Headline over-hypes the article"
If I had a penny every time someone said that then I could probably afford to get onto the London property ladder.
"Is there any evidence for the "it's alive!" hypegasm?"
Searching Google News for "living crystal" brings in some choice examples.
C.
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