Jeff Cassman

Birds flock. Locusts swarm. Fish school. Within assemblies of organisms that seem as though they could get chaotic, order somehow emerges. The collective behaviors of animals differ in their details from one species to another, but they largely adhere to principles of collective motion that physicists have worked out over centuries. Now, using technologies that… Continue reading How Is Flocking Like Computing?

When Dikker and her colleagues analyzed the results, published in 2021, they found that pairs who knew they were seeing neurofeedback grew more in sync over time — an effect driven by their motivation to stay focused on their partner, the researchers explained. More importantly, their heightened synchrony increased how socially connected the pair felt.… Continue reading The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync

In a way, the integer distance problem was a victim of its own early successes. The hyperbola proof, with its ingenious simplicity, is emblematic of the philosophy espoused by Erdős, a highly influential mathematician who often spoke of “The Book” — an imagined volume of the most elegant proofs in mathematics. The culture of simplicity… Continue reading Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance on Old Problem

Electroconvulsive therapy has a public relations problem. The treatment, which sends electric currents through the brain to induce a brief seizure, has barbaric, inhumane connotations — for example, it was portrayed as a sadistic punishment in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But for patients with depression that does not improve with medications,… Continue reading Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of Shock Therapy