Mathematicians took a cue from nature by studying how fireflies synchronize their flashes. Researchers used a complex elliptic burster model of brain cell behavior to understand the synchronization.

Even if the fireflies start off out of sync with each other, or their preferred internal rhythms vary individually, a collective governed by these rules will often converge on a coordinated flash ...

(Nanowerk News) Fireflies, heart cells, clocks, and power grids all do it--they can spontaneously sync up, sending signals out in unison. For centuries, scientists have been perplexed by this ...

Add this to your summer to-do list: next time you see the fireflies outside, try paying attention to the rhythm of the flashes. In some species, swarms will flash in sync. The fireflies' light show, ...

Jul. 5—ATHENS — It was a perfect evening as night pulled down its curtain on the sun and dusk awakened the forest. Standing in the new darkness of a 100-acre wood on a recent summer evening, a group ...

It starts with a flicker of light. Two, three, four flashes follow. Minutes later, dozens of tiny yellow bulbs illuminate the forest like paparazzi hounding the Keebler elves. And then the woods go ...

Synchronous fireflies are uncommon: Only three species inhabit North America and most live in the Appalachian regions stretching from Georgia to southern Pennsylvania. Congaree National Park in South ...

CORRYTON, Tenn. (WTVF) — A rare phenomenon is about to happen in East Tennessee as the Synchronous fireflies will make their return next month. Many apply year after year in a lottery drawing to see ...

In Japanese folk traditions, they symbolize departing souls or silent, ardent love. Some Indigenous cultures in the Peruvian Andes view them as the eyes of ghosts. And across various Western cultures, ...

New experiments in the 'science of sync' may ultimately lead to improved tools for controlling power grids and heart arrhythmias. Fireflies, heart cells, clocks, and power grids all do it -- they can ...