This Simple Simulation Of Fireflies Holds The Secret Behind One Of Nature's Greatest Mathematical Tricks
From simplicity, complexity. That's the great big magic trick of life, isn't it? Sunflower seed patterns follow the fibonacci sequence. Ferns are fractals. All the world's genetic variety is written out in long chains of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts. And so on.
On the surface it looks like there's an unknowable logic at hand here, but underneath, it's really all math — which isn't to say it's not amazing! One of nature's cleverest math-driven phenomena is illustrated beautifully in this simulation of fireflies by Nicky Case.
What Case presents isn't just a field of blinking fireflies to vibe out with (though you can drag your cursor to paint trails of glowing bugs). See, certain varieties of fireflies synchronize with one another — all lighting up together at once. This video taken in Thailand that Case links to captures this phenomenon:
You can replicate this synchronized blinking with the firefly simulator. But how? I won't spoil how the bugs manage to sync up — Case explains it wonderfully, and setting the simulation in motion is kind of the whole point. So go do it, here!
Oh, and sorry in advance if you get that cheesy Owl City song stuck in your head while you play around with your browser-bound bug buddies.
