By Kristin Cobb
Aromas from a kitchen fill a house. A drop of dye colors an entire bucket of water. It’s all because molecules diffuse; they roam around in all directions.
But what would happen if the molecules–instead of moving completely randomly–were influenced by peer pressure? If molecules or particles or people tended to follow the paths of their trendiest neighbors, they might aggregate, even in locations far from their origins.
This type of peer-influenced behavior might explain many puzzling patterns that show up in everything from financial data to fluctuations in animal populations, says a team of physicists that has modeled the behavior mathematically.