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✨ Firefly Synchronization

A 3D swarm of fireflies, each a pulse-coupled biological oscillator, locking from random flicker into synchronized flashing — watch the Kuramoto order parameter r climb as coupling strength crosses the critical threshold.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour2DModerate60 FPS

Watch a scattered swarm of biological oscillators lock into a single synchronized flash — purely through local coupling, with no conductor and no shared clock.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Each firefly's internal clock advances on its own; when a neighbour flashes, its phase is nudged forward. From this simple pulse-coupling rule, whole-swarm synchrony can emerge — or fail to, if coupling is too weak.

🎮 How to Use

Raise Coupling strength to pull the swarm into sync; raise Frequency spread to make that harder. Watch the order parameter r climb toward 1 as the flashes lock together.

💡 Did You Know?

Photinus carolinus fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains synchronize so reliably each June that rangers run a lottery for viewing permits.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D swarm of fireflies, each a pulse-coupled biological oscillator, locking from random flicker into synchronized flashing as coupling strength crosses a critical threshold.

fireflieskuramoto-modelpulse-coupled-oscillatorssynchronizationentomology

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install