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Reading & Listening

Emergence as Harmony: is there a universal mathematics of self-organisation?

A new book proposes a mathematical framework for explaining how organised collective behaviour emerges from interactions among independently acting participants.

22-Oct-2026

Events

What do animals, plants, fungi and machines have in common when they behave intelligently?

An interdisciplinary symposium in Berlin will examine whether intelligence across radically different biological and artificial systems shares common organisational principles.

18-Oct-2026

Research

Tiny satellites coordinate their orbits using only local decisions and atmospheric drag

A proposed spacecraft-swarm architecture enables miniature satellites to coordinate their orbital positions without conventional propulsion or continuous ground control.

18-Oct-2026

Research

Five autonomous robots cooperate to surround tumbling space debris

A European Space Agency laboratory experiment is testing whether cooperating autonomous robots can surround and track an uncontrolled object in conditions resembling orbital weightlessness.

18-Oct-2026

Events

DARS 2026 puts genuinely distributed robotics at the centre of its programme

One of the principal international meetings devoted specifically to distributed autonomous robotics takes place in Tokyo from 26 to 29 October 2026.

18-Oct-2026

Research

Autonomous AI agents invent a shared language without a central authority - "neuralese"

Autonomous agents can develop a common communication language through repeated local interactions, without a central computer establishing vocabulary or rules.

18-Oct-2026

Research

Scientists finally measure the individual chemical deposits that build an ant trail

Researchers have directly visualised and measured individual pheromone deposits made by ants, revealing that the chemical building blocks of collective trails are far less uniform than previously assumed.

17-Oct-2026

Research

Coastal dunes organise themselves through environmental feedback — but local damage can become permanent

Coastal dune systems develop large-scale spatial patterns through feedback between vegetation density and the movement of sand.

17-Oct-2026

Research

Identical fish develop different collective personalities

Genetically identical fish can develop strikingly different collective behaviours despite growing up under standardised conditions.

09-Oct-2026

Research

For these bacteria, bumping into the crowd is the message

Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria use physical collisions with neighbours as information, dynamically switching between disorder and coordinated movement without chemical signalling.

09-Oct-2026

Research

Elephant choruses may help a herd converge on what to do next

African elephants appear to make their calls more alike as some group conversations unfold, potentially helping a herd coordinate a shared course of action.

09-Oct-2026

Research

Bacterial communities divide the work — then use quorum signals to coordinate it

Engineered bacterial communities can use chemical communication to coordinate a metabolic division of labour that no single strain performs as effectively alone.

09-Oct-2026

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