Each cell holds a complex state Ψ = v·e^{iφ}: amplitude v = metabolic energy, phase φ = membrane voltage. Cells share voltage through gap junctions — a coupling that is literally the Kuramoto term, sin(φ_neighbor − φ_self). With its own frequency ω, the field can drift, partially lock (a chimera), or fully entrain — read live as the order parameter R (0 = incoherent, 1 = one rhythm).
The coupling is a Mexican-hat kernel — excite near neighbours, inhibit far ones. At 0 it is pure diffusion: broad synchrony, smooth flowing colour. Raise it and the surround inhibition fragments the field into competing cellular clusters (a Turing instability). Ramp K ↑ re-randomises every phase and slowly raises coupling so you can watch R climb through the synchronization transition.
The field relaxes to the seed's stillness amplitude ϕ^d* = π, so |Ψ| → √π. A Target Morphology remodels the tissue toward a remembered shape; where it matches, growth ceases — field stillness. Injuries appear as winding-number vortices (Q = ±1, the pinwheels) that heal by drifting together and annihilating — the same winding excitations as the π–ϕ stillness field.
An illustrative model, not a validated theory — but the coupling, entrainment, defects and stillness are all real, computed each frame on the GPU.