Theory 09/Phase change
Phase Change Is Crowding Against Food
The claim
The locust phase transition is set by the ratio of crowding to food quality, so well-fed crowded insects remain solitary while hungry crowded ones gregarise.
01Mechanism
Crowding triggers serotonin release while food quality modulates it; the ratio determines whether the gregarious programme is expressed.
02Predictions
- P1Phase should track the ratio.
- P2Density alone should mispredict.
03Refutation
Phase tracking density would remove the nutritional term.
04Why it resists the grid
One genome produces two animals with different morphologies, behaviours and ecologies — the unit of selection is unclear.