Sex, fads, and math

Scientists might use a term like "computed statistics of social synchrony" to refer to what normal people might call sex, fads, and math. Our two texts this month brought us together around these questions: Can mathematical models describe the mating rituals of fireflies, the love life of secret agents, and treatment trends in hospitals?

Firefly synchronicity

The first text we studied was a published piece of literary science writing about physicists studying collective bug behavior: “Bright Flight: The Mysteries of Firefly Synchrony” by Vanessa Gregory, a professor of journalism. The essay was published in Harper's magazine and subsequently selected for the year's Best American Science and Nature Writing edited by the science writer Carl Zimmer.

Surgical trends and the love life of James Bond

Our second text was a draft article by a team of clinical researchers and a science writer attempting to weave together film criticism and medical commentary, in a way that was slightly tongue-in-cheek, in order to try to encourage a resistant audience to see something differently through a little bit of humor and self-reflection. Jumping off from one of the more memorable "mathematical" charts to have ever appeared in the British Medical Journal—an unusual parabola—this draft article revealed for the first time a link between the love life of James Bond and fads in orthopaedic surgery. The authors reported that the feedback received on this draft text was helpful, resulting in fruitful revisions.

Update

The James Bond surgery article was later published!

Image: Synchronous fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains; Harper's, Jeff Rowton