Locusts and statistical mechanics
So this is only a short post - I’ve been burgled, losing my laptop, some PhD work, my ID, and who knows what else and so I’m a little distracted - but I couldn’t pass up this fantastic story about modelling locusts using statistical mechanics,a branch of physics which is more often used to describe particles of gas or molecules in a solid, than insects. They were able to reproduce the behaviour of locusts to gather and swarm apparently randomly until their numbers reach a critical mass - and then pow, they all attack en masse. Very cool!
Mike B. Says:
Inspired by Kate, I too will comment (even though I too am a completely random person who stumbled across your site).
I love when apparently complicated systems turn out to boil down to some simple rules. Reminds me of some AI work that modeled ant behavior using several simple rules. Something like:
(1) Walk around somewhat randomly
(2) If you find a piece of food, bring it back to your nest and lay down pheromones as you go
(3) If you run across a pheromone trail follow it - if you end up back at nest turn around
I couldn’t help myself.
I randomly happened upon your journal and wasn’t going to a comment, because, yes, it’s a little wierd getting comments from random people, I know, but then I thought, hell why not. It’s fun to get comments anyhow.
(1)I find it mildly amusing that although you’ve lost nearly everything that is pretty important, you’re writing about modelling locusts. That’s superb! It shows that you’re still in good spirts!
(2)That is quite fasinating that the balloons in the park exhibited a linear rate of decay. Hehe…
Have a good one. Keep up the good work. And hey, a PhD… is Preparing for Happier Days so keep going at it.
I didn’t mean to forget my details. So there they are, just so that I’m not a completely random psycho writing a comment.