Illustration Newton Reloaded: Dresden Physicists Go Beyond the Action–Reaction Principle (IMAGE)
Caption
Flocks of birds, bacteria and tissue cells: in some collective systems, the individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings and therefore do not follow Newton’s third law, which states that action equals reaction. Physicists at the Cluster of Excellence ctd.qmat in Dresden have developed a remarkable theory that allows these exceptions to be efficiently described and simulated far more accurately. The trick is that auxiliary degrees of freedom — shown here as green birds — give the theory the flexibility it needs to precisely describe even these exceptions to Newton’s law.
Credit
Kilian Neddermeyer
Usage Restrictions
none
License
Original content