The Emergence of Birds in the Sky and Such
Image from Physics World Have you ever watched a large flock of birds create beautiful patterns in the sky and wondered how it all works? Curiously, there seems to be no time lag between the movements of each individual. How does each bird know when to turn and where to go? People have wondered about this perplexing behavior for centuries. Perhaps, as the ancient Romans thought, it is an expression of the will of the Gods. Early scientists could not fathom the reason for such coordination, and some even suggested some kind of natural telepathy could explain this phenomenon. Recent studies using high-speed cameras and computational models suggest that it is all due to the simple behaviors of individuals. Yet, even these studies have raised questions that are difficult to answer. See Explaining Bird Flocks in Audibon Magazine. I believe we need to look to the inherent wholeness in nature to understand why birds flock the way they do. An ...