Seeing these images is a bit like gazing inside a laser. Laser light is special because within the laser itself billions of atoms are working in concert to produce light together. Each atom is capable of emitting light on its own, but it is only when they work together that a laser is born. In my research I seek to understand this phenomenon, and, if possible, to study different physical systems in which it may occur. Pictured here are two identical systems composed of random parts, all working away at their own frequencies. But in the system on the right, the parts have greater sympathy for one another. The work of each neighbor influences the others. The result is something much greater than the sum of its parts.