Flocking animals, such as hundreds of birds sweeping across the sky in unison, are a mesmerizing sight. But how does their collective motion – seen in many species, from swarming locusts to schooling ...

We present a two-dimensional lattice model of self-propelled spins that can change direction only upon collision with another spin. We show that even with ballistic motion and minimal cooperativity, ...

A new mathematical model explains how individual birds within a flock regulate their speed 1. The model, developed by researchers at Italy’s National Research Council Institute of Complex Systems, is ...