5min chapter

People I (Mostly) Admire cover image

96. Steven Strogatz Thinks You Don’t Know What Math Is

People I (Mostly) Admire

CHAPTER

How Do Fireflies All Come to Flash and Synchrony?

There are some species of firefly especially in Southeast Asia where the male fireflies will gather in mangrove trees along river banks every night. It's unbelievably spectacular and it looks like Christmas trees. The biologist thought that what's happening is when a firefly flashes, if another firefly sees it, it adjusts its own rhythm. They're also seeing flashes and they adjust the timer of their flash organ to be faster or a little bit slower depending on where in their cycle it was when they received the flash.

00:00

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode