Related papers: Unexpected trends in termite survival
Living groups move in complex environments and are constantly subject to external stimuli, predatory attacks and disturbances. An efficient response to such perturbations is vital to maintain the group's coherence and cohesion.…
Animals form groups for many reasons but there are costs and benefit associated with group formation. One of the benefits is collective memory. In groups on the move, social interactions play a crucial role in the cohesion and the ability…
The ability to learn from others (social learning) is often deemed a cause of human species success. But if social learning is indeed more efficient (whether less costly or more accurate) than individual learning, it raises the question of…
Classic computational models of collective motion suggest that simple local averaging rules can promote many observed group level patterns. Recent studies, however, suggest that rules simpler than local averaging may be at play in real…
Social interaction increases significantly the performance of a wide range of cooperative systems. However, evidence that natural swarms limit the number of social connections suggests potentially detrimental consequences of excessive…
Evolutionary models are used to study the self-organisation of collective action, often incorporating population structure due to its ubiquitous presence and long-known impact on emerging phenomena. We investigate the evolution of…
We present evidence of a novel form of group hunting. Individual sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) alternate attacks with other group members on their schooling prey (Sardinella aurita). While only 24% of attacks result in prey capture,…
Researchers puzzle over questions as to how rare species survive extinction, and why a significant proportion of microbial taxa are dormant. Computational simulation modeling by a genetic algorithm provides some answers. First, a…
Cluster growth in a coagulating system of active particles (such as microswimmers in a solvent) is studied by theory and simulation. In contrast to passive systems, the net velocity of a cluster can have various scalings dependent on the…
We compare and contrast the long-time dynamical properties of two individual-based models of biological coevolution. Selection occurs via multispecies, stochastic population dynamics with reproduction probabilities that depend nonlinearly…
Motivated by the wide range of known self-replicating systems, some far from genetics, we study a system composed by individuals having an internal dynamics with many possible states that are partially stable, with varying mutation rates.…
Individuals involved in common group activities/settings -- e.g., college students that are enrolled in the same class and/or live in the same dorm -- are exposed to recurrent contacts of physical proximity. These contacts are known to…
One of the most highly debated questions in the field of animal swarming and social behaviour, is the collective random patterns and chaotic behaviour formed by some animal species, in particular if there is a danger. Is such a behaviour…
Social foraging shows unexpected features such as the existence of a group size threshold to accomplish a successful hunt. Above this threshold, additional individuals do not increase the probability of capturing the prey. Recent direct…
How do flocks, herds and swarms proceed through disordered environments? This question is not only crucial to animal groups in the wild, but also to virtually all applications of collective robotics, and active materials composed of…
In this paper, we study the dynamics of a random walker diffusing on a disordered one-dimensional lattice with random trappings. The distribution of escape probabilities is computed exactly for any strength of the disorder. These…
Bacteria commonly live in structured communities that affect human health and influence ecological systems. Heterogeneous populations, such as motile and non-motile populations, often coexist in bacteria communities. Motile subpopulations…
The transition from individual to collective motion plays a significant role in many biological processes. While the implications of different types of particle-particle interactions for the emergence of particular modes of collective…
Flocking is ubiquitous in nature and emerges due to short- or long-range alignment interactions among self-propelled agents. Two unfriendly species that antialign or even interact nonreciprocally show more complex collective phenomena,…
The affiliation with various social groups can be a critical factor when it comes to quality of life of each individual, making such groups an essential element of every society. The group dynamics, longevity and effectiveness strongly…