Simplifying Complexity

How do fireflies synchronise?

Aug 21, 2023

Orit Peleg, an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, talks about the synchronization of fireflies. She explains the process of studying firefly swarms, how even a small amount of coupling can lead to synchronization, and the potential applications in programming synchronized behaviors in swarms of robots.

25:56

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Episode guests

Orit Peleg

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Quick takeaways

Fireflies synchronize their flashing through interactions in a complex system, which can be applied to programming swarm robots.

Studying fireflies in national parks using cameras helps understand emergent periodicity in collective firefly behavior.

Deep dives

Fireflies and Synchronization

Fireflies have the ability to synchronize their flashing in the night sky, even over significant areas. This synchronization is achieved through the interactions of individual fireflies in a complex system. Understanding this mechanism can have implications for programming swarm robots to work together.

Introduction

2min

Firefly Synchronization and Field Work Challenges

6min

Capturing Firefly Flashes and Creating a Controlled Environment

2min

Understanding Firefly Synchronization

8min

Exploring Synchronization in Fireflies and Other Biological Systems

4min

Self-Organization and Synchronization in Distributed Systems

2min

Orit Peleg is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Orit has been on the show before, to discuss how bees work as a complex system. In this episode, we're staying within the animal kingdom, as Orit talks to us about fireflies.

In this episode, Orit is going to explain how thousands of fireflies over very significant areas can synchronise their flashing in the night sky. She'll break down the work she has been doing to study this complex system of individual agents and share the lessons we can learn from these fireflies and use them in other applications. For example, what can we learn from these synchronised fireflies that could help us to program a swarm of small robots to work together to lift something?

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This show is produced in collaboration with Wavelength Creative. Visit wavelengthcreative.com for more information.

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Simplifying Complexity

How do fireflies synchronise?

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Fireflies and Synchronization

Field Work and Data Collection

Models and Insights

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts