Recently, researchers have observed these spirals in both human and animal hearts during cardiac fibrillation.

ECONOMIST: Better living through chaos

Sometimes, however, these waves become horribly distorted and make the heart beat erratically, a condition called cardiac fibrillation.

ECONOMIST: Better living through chaos

But according to Daniel Gauthier, a physicist at Duke University in North Carolina, if cardiac fibrillation is chaotic, it is not the usual kind of chaos.

ECONOMIST: Better living through chaos

Atrial fibrillation is the most common clinically significant cardiac arrhythmia.

FORBES: DATA AT A DISTANCE: Thoughts on 'Digital Public Health'

Pre-operative statin therapy can reduce the chance of post-operative atrial fibrillation and shortens the stay on the intensive care unit (ICU) and in the hospital in patients who undergo cardiac surgery, according to a new systematic review by Cochrane researchers.

FORBES: Preoperative Statins Found to Reduce AF and Length of Stay But Not Mortality