these feats of synchrony occur spontaneously, almost as if nature has an eerie yearning for order.

transient sync

it results in a kind of cosmic ballet that plays out on stages that range from our bodies to the universe as a whole.

The impressive kind of sync is persistent.

The laws of thermodynamics seem to dictate the opposite, that nature should inexorably degenerate toward a state of greater disorder, greater entropy. Yet all around us we see magnificent structures—galaxies, cells, ecosystems, human beings—that have somehow managed to assemble themselves.

For reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendency to synchronize is one of the most pervasive drives in the universe, extending from atoms to animals, from people to planets.

Even our bodies are symphonies of rhythm, kept alive by the relentless, coordinated firing of thousands of pacemaker cells in our hearts.

Sync is both strange and beautiful. It is strange because it seems to defy the laws of physics (though in fact it relies on them, often in curious ways). It is beautiful because

AT THE HEART OF THE UNIVERSE IS a steady, insistent beat: the sound of cycles in sync. It pervades nature at every scale from the nucleus to the cosmos.