Preface

Summary

The word “synchronous” is often encountered in both scientific and everyday language. Originating from the Greek words χρόνος (chronos, meaning time) and σύν (syn, meaning the same, common), in a direct translation “synchronous” means “sharing the common time”, “occurring in the same time”. This term, as well as the related words “synchronization” and “synchronized”, refers to a variety of phenomena in almost all branches of natural sciences, engineering and social life, phenomena that appear to be rather different but nevertheless often obey universal laws.

A search in any scientific data base for publication titles containing the words with the root “synchro” produces many hundreds (if not thousands) of entries. Initially, this effect was found and investigated in different man-made devices, from pendulum clocks to musical instruments, electronic generators, electric power systems, and lasers. It has found numerous practical applications in electrical and mechanical engineering. Nowadays the “center of gravity” of the research has moved towards biological systems, where synchronization is encountered on different levels. Synchronous variation of cell nuclei, synchronous firing of neurons, adjustment of heart rate with respiration and/or locomotory rhythms, different forms of cooperative behavior of insects, animals and even humans – these are only some examples of the fundamental natural phenomenon that is the subject of this book.