UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Scientists long have been fascinated by the ability of insect colonies and other biological systems to organize themselves in the apparent absence of any directing force or centralized blueprint.

A phenomenon called "self-organization" increasingly is being used to explain patterned collective behavior such as the synchronized flashing of fireflies, the coordinated movement of a school of fish and the swarming of honey bees in search of a new nest site.

A new book, "Self-Organization in Biological Systems," looks at how individual organisms interact to create structures and patterns that promote the survival of the whole. Published by Princeton University Press, the book was co-authored by Scott Camazine, assistant professor of entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

"Self-organization is a process in which collective patterns emerge as the result of interactions among individual components of the system," Camazine explains. "The collective patterns and structures arise without the guidance of well-informed leaders, and without predetermined blueprints, recipes or templates. Instead, structure emerges unexpectedly through dynamic interactions among individuals, which rely only on local, not global, information."

Camazine's research in this area has focused largely on self-organization in honey bee colonies, addressing such coordinated behaviors as pollen foraging; the formation of concentric patterns of brood, pollen and honey on the comb; the thermoregulation of colonies in winter; the social organization of the defensive response in European and Africanized honey bees; and decision-making by honey bee swarms in nest site selection.

"A colony of insects faces the same challenges that confront an individual organism -- defense, nourishment and reproduction," says Camazine. "Although a colony may be a well-integrated unit, it nonetheless consists of many separate individuals, each relatively autonomous and simple. This raises the question of how the colony accomplishes its remarkable collective feats. How are colony-level decisions made without the colony equivalent of a brain or an organizing committee?"

A primer for students and other enthusiasts, "Self-Organization in Biological Systems" introduces readers to the basic concepts and tools for studying self-organization and examines numerous examples of self-organization in the natural world. For information, contact Princeton University Press at 800-777-4726, or visit the Web at http://beelab.cas.psu.edu/organization/.

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EDITORS: Scott Camazine can be reached at 814-863-1854.

Contact:

Chuck Gill cdg5@psu.edu 814-863-2713 814-865-1068 fax