The Glassy State: Equations Reveal The Rebellious Rhythms At The Heart Of Nature b4in.org/h4pG Physicists are using equations to reveal the hidden complexities of the human body. From the beating of our hearts to the proper functioning of our brains, many systems in nature depend on collections of ‘oscillators’; perfectly-coordinated, rhythmic systems working together in flux, like the cardiac muscle cells in the heart. Unless they act together, not much happens. But when they do, powerful changes occur. Cooperation between neurons results in brain waves and cognition, synchronized contractions of cardiac cells cause the whole heart to contract and pump the blood around the body. Lasers would not function without all the atomic oscillators acting in unison. Soldiers even have to break step when they reach a bridge in case oscillations caused by their marching feet cause the bridge to collapse. But sometimes those oscillations go wrong. Writing in the journal Nature Communications , scientists at Lancaster University report the possibility of “glassy states” and a “super-relaxation” phenomenon, which might appear in the networks of tiny oscillators within the brain, heart and other oscillating entities. To uncover these phenomena, they took a new approach to the solution of a set of equations proposed by the Japanese scientist Yoshiki Kuramoto in the 1970s. His theory showed it was possible in principle to predict the properties of a system as a whole from a knowledge of how oscillators interacted with each other on an individual basis. More b4in.org/h4pG
Posted on: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 00:37:39 +0000
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