Princeton University Department of Physics Colloquium

Collective behaviour is a widespread phenomenon in biological systems, at very different scales and levels of complexity. Bird flocks gathering over the roost at dusk, fish schools milling under water, swarms of insects, trails of foraging ants, herds of mammals, are only a few examples, which are familiar to many of us. This self-organization is very general and transcends the detailed nature of the individual constituents, making it a subject of great interdisciplinary interest and has triggered much attention in biology, physics, control theory and robotics. In this talk I will describe how models and empirical data have improved our understanding of animal collective and outline some methodological and conceptual issues relevant for future perspectives in this field.