Complexity Thoughts: Issue #3
Unraveling complexity: building knowledge, one paper at a time
Network and Complexity Foundations
Why are there six degrees of separation in a social network? | arXiv
We roughly observe six degrees of separation in our social networks. Why? This paper proposes a model based on simple mechanistic rules to explain the origin of the scaling characterizing small-world networks.
Message passing methods on complex networks | arXiv
A needed review about message passing methods in #NetworkScience From percolation to community detection and Ising dynamics, this technical review by Mark Newman is really cool.
How information flows across individual organisms gathering for collective behavior?
The authors show that it is possible to conceive intermittent collective strategies that take advantage of both hierarchical and democratic organizational schemes, and validate this with data.
It is challenging to quantifying the difference between a stationary trajectory and a time-reversed one. Nevertheless, solutions to this problem can enhance our understanding of collective behavior in living organisms that have no equilibrium counterpart. In this paper, the authors propose a solution.
Closed-form continuous-time neural networks | Nature Machine intelligence
The authors use LTC (liquid time-constant recurrent neural networks, a Universal Approximator) to approximate closed-form representation of (neural) network, a known intractable problem.
Network Neuroscience
The human brain is a complex system with hierarchical and modular mesoscale organization. Here, integration and segregation is inspected, and I find this interesting because it is shown that integrative attention and control systems can facilitate hierarchical information flow.
The connectome of an insect brain | bioRxiv
The synaptic-resolution connectome of the brain of a Drosophila larva! About 3,000 neurons and half a million synapses, providing a basis for future experimental and theoretical studies of neural circuits.
Network Epidemiology
The dynamics of an epidemic depends also on the underlying network structure, especially the mobility network. Here, it is shown how an inference framework can be used to model the underlying mobility network and consequently improve the quality of the fit.
Climate Change
Ocean currents show global intensification of weak tropical cyclones | Nature
Empirical evidence that, globally, Tropical Cyclones have strengthened across the entirety of the intensity distribution.
Small rainfall changes drive substantial changes in plant coexistence | Nature
Complex systems: where small perturbations can lead to large effects. This is the case for perturbations to species interactions in response to precipitation. Very relevant when predicting species and community response to global change.
Human Behavior
Pandemic fatigue fueled political discontent during the COVID-19 pandemic | PNAS
Our society is a complex system. Living with a pathogen responsible for a pandemic is a shock that can have several (also unintended) consequences if overlooked. Pandemic fatigue can have very harmful consequences.
Growing polarization around climate change on social media | Nature Climate Change
Climate change is an issue of growing concern since at least a couple of decades. With the advent of social media, it is interesting to study the how human behavior changes and adapt accordingly. This paper shows that polarization is increasing and it can be harmful for the public discourse.
Evolution
A global analysis of matches and mismatches between human genetic and linguistic histories | PNAS
Language is transmitted similarly to how genes and traits are. It is worth wondering if languages and genes are tied together in human history, and this paper provides some insights.
Book of the week
By Peter Sterling and Simon Laughlin
