Chimera Video (VIDEO) Princeton University This video is under embargo. Please login to access this video. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Caption Researchers from Princeton University and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization report the first purely physical experimental evidence that chimera states can occur naturally within any process that relies on spontaneous synchronization, including clock pendulums, lightning bugs and heart valves. A chimera state arises among identical, rhythmically moving components when a few of those parts spontaneously fall out of sync while the rest remain synchronized. The researchers developed a simple apparatus made of two swings, each fitted with 15 metronomes (above). A spring connected the swings so that they moved together. When the swings were set in motion, the metronomes would eventually move together. Yet if the connecting spring was at a certain tensity, the symmetry spontaneously broke so that the metronomes on one swing stayed in lockstep (left) while the metronomes on the other swing moved erratically (right) despite the metronomes all being set to move at the same pace. Credit Courtesy of Shashi Thutupalli Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.