These observations overall point to a beautiful and complex spatiotemporal pattern to these biological waves, namely that of a highly excitable system. It's exciting to think about connections to other excitable signaling systems, such as neuronal or electrochemical systems in plants!

These fish are densely packed at the surface of shallow water, with ~1000 fish per square meter. Upon visual cues signaling predators to the fish, they reliably swim rapidly downwards, forming a wave that propagates.

🧵 Watch closely the waves on the surface as a bird moves through the water! This is one of my favorite videos that I've seen recently - dense collections of fish using collective escape waves that confuse birds 🌊

Great new paper by David Bierbach et al. : royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....