“The moon spins in perfect resonance with its orbit around Earth; millions of neurons fire together to control our breathing; every night along the tidal rivers of Malaysia, thousands of fireflies flash in silent, hypnotic unison. All of these astonishing feats of synchrony occur spontaneously – as if the universe had an overwhelming desire for order” (from the dust jacket of Steven Strogatz’s book Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order). In this class we will discuss some of these examples of synchronized behaviors and try to understand how they arise spontaneously.

About the instructor: Dr. John Tyson.

Before retiring to Dock Woods with his wife, Linda, John Tyson was a university distinguished professor of biological sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. John earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from Wheaton College in 1969 and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago in 1973. As a graduate student, John began his transition from chemical physics to theoretical biology because many open problems in molecular cell biology caught his attention. After postdoctoral studies in biophysical chemistry and cell biology in Germany and Austria, John and Linda moved back to Blacksburg in 1979, where they raised their four children. At Dock Woods, John continues to write scientific papers with his colleagues at Virginia Tech and other universities in the U.S. and Europe.