Steven Strogatz's curriculum vitae is more eclectic than most. He has investigated how crickets come to chirp in harmony, and why applauding audiences spontaneously clap in unison. The theme behind such studies ― the way in which systems of multiple units achieve synchrony ― is so common that it has kept him busy for over two decades. "Synchrony" says Strogatz, a mathematician at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, "is one of the most pervasive phenomena in the Universe." When a mysterious wobble forced engineers to close London's Millennium Bridge shortly after it opened in 2000, for example, an unforeseen synchronizing effect was responsible: walkers were responding to slight movements in the bridge and inadvertently adjusting their strides so that they marched in time. But synchrony can provide benefits too: researchers working on new radio transmitters and drug-delivery systems are harnessing the phenomenon to impressive effect. "It occurs on subatomic to cosmic scales and at frequencies that range from billions of oscillations per second to one cycle in a million years,"saysStrogatz."It'sawayoflookingat the world that reveals some amazing similarities."
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