Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Subscribe

Logo for

Science 328 (5981): 987-988

Copyright © 2010 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Biochemistry

Stochastic Emergence of Groupthink

Arthur Prindle, and Jeff Hasty

Oscillations are found at nearly every level of biology. From the dynamic instability of cytoskeletal elements in an individual cell to the circadian rhythms that regulate a multitude of operations at the organismal level, it is clear that periodicity is an essential characteristic of living systems. On page 1021 of this issue, Gregor et al. (1) describe how cell aggregation and development of the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is guided by emergent rhythmic behavior arising from the stochastic pulsing of individual cells with a chemical cue. By combining experimental and computational approaches, the authors present the exciting story of the dynamical onset of collective behavior in this organism. The findings raise the question of whether biology uses oscillations to solve problems typically assumed to have static or unidirectional solutions.

Department of Biology and Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

E-mail: hasty{at}bioeng.ucsd.edu

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882