Traveling fronts and pulses in excitable media — click to create a wavefront
Excitable media support traveling waves that:
• Propagate at constant speed (determined by kinetics + diffusion)
• Annihilate on collision (refractory zones)
• Cannot reflect from boundaries
The Zhabotinsky-Belousov reaction is the classic chemical example. Click anywhere to initiate a wavefront. The wave leaves behind a refractory zone that prevents re-excitation.