Chemists often use a standard argument to explain or predict the bulk properties of their creations. For example, it’s easy to predict that a liquid consisting of molecules that interact strongly will have a lower vapour pressure than one comprised of molecules that interact weakly.
The key, of course, is the strength of the interaction. Once known it can be used to predict a wide range of phenomenon.
At least, that’s the way chemists and physicists do it. Now Zengru Di, at Beijing Normal University in China, and Bertrand Roehner, at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, ask whether a similar approach might work for biological systems that consists of large numbers of similar entities; swarms of ants, fruit flies beetles and so on. They point out that knowing the strength of the interaction between creatures might lead to predictions about their group behaviour.
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