Orit Peleg

Emergence of Brains This review traces how ideas from statistical physics evolved into foundational models of neural computation, shaping modern AI and culminating in the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.

It was an honor to write this, but also great fun. A chance to look back at the classics, and think about the path forward. #Physics is a beautiful human endeavor. journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

Principles, mechanisms and functions of entrainment in biological oscillators | Interface Focus Entrainment is a phenomenon in which two oscillators interact with each other, typically through physical or chemical means, to synchronize their oscillations. This phenomenon occurs in biology to coo...

Love this example! The seabird rhythms are a great case of synchronised clocks in the wild. Coupled oscillator entrainment is a whole rabbit hole of its own... A handy overview is here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

We didn’t forget the tangled worms! They make an appearance in our Annual Review of Biophysics piece (with another stellar postdoc, Danielle Chase), where we discuss how blackworms weave themselves into living soft matter and the resilience that brings:

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

❤️🪱

Three‑row table linking scales: fish, penguin, ant. Each row shows an individual silhouette, a pair‑level interaction image, and the emergent collective - schooling fish, penguin huddle, and an ant raft.

New review in PRX Life, where we propose a tangibility scale for the physics of social interactions, and highlight a few tangible examples - from dead fish “swimming” to efficient schooling, warm penguin huddles, and dry ant rafts.
Written with the brilliant Chantal Nguyen 🐟🐧🐜

tinyurl.com/naet5tdh

Fireflies are flourishing in places you wouldn't expect Pesticides, habitat loss, and light pollution are threatening firefly populations worldwide, but even in urban areas, some lightning bugs continue to shine.

Fireflies are still generally declining, & light pollution is one big reason why, but a few species are also carrying on in places that are bathed in artificial light. Which is pretty wild!

Featuring Sriram Murali's excellent photography! 🧪

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

The 16th-Century Artist Who Created the First Compendium of Insect Drawings Before the invention of the microscope and the field of entomology emerged, Joris Hoefnagel devoted himself to the natural world.

Nearly a century before the invention of the microscope and even longer before entomology became a field of research, Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600) devoted himself to studying the natural world. He's thought to have created the first compendium of its kind.

🙏❤️

📣 We're on the lookout for a creative postdoc with strong computational skills!

Be the go-to person in the lab for building simple but powerful simulations that test wild ideas on biological rythems: from daily cycles of mussel groups at deep sea, to firefly flash synchronization!

More info below👇

🤩

Thank you so much!

Awesome, thank you!

The longer the better, but even just a few nights would be great 🙏

Whoohoo! Thank you @devonianstone.bsky.social

🙏

Help us record firefly flashes! 👇🙏

Hello hello #complexity and #emergence people.

I'm getting a complexity+emergence (broadly defined) starter pack going.

I've focused on active accounts that often make original posts (not just reposts) and have at least a few thousand followers. Inclusion is not endorsement.

go.bsky.app/BLuVyWj

Orit Peleg

Fireflies. Photo by Mac Stone

Decoding 🌟 firefly communication & conservation in Colorado

Join us for a *free* evening talk by @oritpeleg.bsky.social at the Mountain Research Station (run by @colorado.edu + INSTAAR):
🗓 Wed Jun 18th
🕖 7:00 pm
📍 Near Ward CO
🔗 calendar.colorado.edu/event/orit-p...

The Mathematical Mysteries of Fireflies What blinking bugs reveal about synchrony in the universe

Among the thousands of firefly species in the world, only a handful blink in sync. While both male and female fireflies flash, only the males synchronize. 🧪

Fleeting fireflies illuminate Colorado summer nights − and researchers are watching New research uses firefly flashing patterns to identify species and what they’re communicating.

In these chaotic times, I’ve been grounding myself in my mentees’ successes: here’s a beautiful story by PhD candidate Owen Martin (@lepurplemartin.bsky.social) on Colorado’s fireflies 🌟✨ theconversation.com/fleeting-fir...

That’s like, your opinion, man

Lead author Auke-Florian Hiemstra holds the oldest known caddisfly casing containing microplastic, dating to 1971. Photo: Liselotte Rambonnet.

A caddisfly casing with pieces of blue microplastic, dating 1986. Photo: Auke-Florian Hiemstra

NEW PAPER, JUST OUT! 👀

Insects from the '70s and '80s were already collecting microplastic, decades before the term microplastic even existed. 🤯

A thread on the surprising history of this pollutant and the incredible insect larvae that helped us uncover it. 🐛

Let's dive in! 🧵👇 1/x

📢Excited to share our new paper in Nature Physics
@naturephysics.bsky.social: Cooperative hydrodynamics accompany multicellular-like colonial organization in the unicellular Stentor!

How do single-celled organisms benefit from teamwork? Let’s dive in! #Multicellularity nature.com/articles/s41...?

YouTube video by Ze Frank True Facts: Where Have All The Fireflies Gone!

Great to see my work and the work of my advisor @oritpeleg.bsky.social featured by one of my media heroes @zefrank.bsky.social ! Alongside my conservation heroes Candace and Richard from the @xercessociety.bsky.social!
Let’s get talking about firefly conservation

www.youtube.com/watch?v=czt_...

Continuing the recruitment trend! Our lab has 2 (!) open postdoc positions🥳
We're looking for creative and curious scientists to lead new projects: one on deep-sea biological rhythms and another on the evolution of biological communication🐚🦗🦋🐙🦉
If you know someone who'd be a good fit, please share!

Thank you, Fritz ❤️

More info and application submissions at:
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

Continuing the recruitment trend! Our lab has 2 (!) open postdoc positions🥳
We're looking for creative and curious scientists to lead new projects: one on deep-sea biological rhythms and another on the evolution of biological communication🐚🦗🦋🐙🦉
If you know someone who'd be a good fit, please share!

Our lab @CUBoulder is growing, and we are looking for a part-time lab manager! Please help spread the word 🙏

We’re excited to welcome someone who can help keep us organized and thriving as we explore collective behavior! 🎉

More info👇
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

My linocut showing 3 fireflies in green grass against a dark blue starry sky. Each firefly has orange on its upper body and its lower body is surrounded by a globe of light to show it is glowing, printed in glow in the dark ink.

For the last day of 2024, #InverteFest, #InsertAnInvert2024 wildcard: This linocut shows three fireflies (Photinus pyralis, the common eastern firefly or big dipper firefly) in a field against the night sky. These bioluminescent insects are the most common firefly in North America and

How do we assess intelligence? 🎙️ Episode 5 of the 'Nature of Intelligence' season is out on #Complexity podcast!

When it comes to assessing intelligence, people have all kinds of tests — the SAT, IQ tests, and so on. There’s controversy over how fairly these tests really measure human intelligence,