1 - Webs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
Summary
The science of complex webs, also known as network science, is an exciting area of contemporary research, overarching the traditional scientific disciplines of biology, economics, physics, sociology and the other compartments of knowledge found in any college catalog. The transportation grids of planes, highways and railroads, the economic meshes of global finance and stock markets, the social webs of terrorism, governments, and businesses as well as churches, mosques, and synagogs, the physical lattices of telephones, the Internet, earthquakes, and global warming, in addition to the biological networks of gene regulation, the human body, clusters of neurons and food webs, share a number of apparently universal properties as the webs become increasingly complex. This conclusion is shared by the recent report Network Science [23] published under the auspices of the National Academy of Science. The terms networks and network science have become popular tags for these various areas of investigation, but we prefer the image of a web rather than the abstraction of a network, so we use the term web more often than the synonyms network, mesh, net, lattice, grille or fret. Colloquially, the term web entails the notion of entanglement that the name network does not share. Perhaps it is just the idea of the spider ensnaring its prey that appeals to our darker sides.
Whatever the intellectual material is called, this book is not about the research that has been done to understand complex webs, at least not in the sense of a monograph. We have attempted to put selected portions of that research into a pedagogic and often informal context, one that highlights the limitations of the more traditional descriptions of these areas. In this regard we are obligated to discuss the state of the art regarding a broad sweep of complex phenomena from a variety of academic disciplines. Sometimes properly setting the stage requires a historical approach and other times the historical view is replaced with personal perspectives, but with either approach we do not leave the reader alone to make sense of what can be difficult material. So we begin by illuminating the basic assumptions that often go unexamined in science.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Complex WebsAnticipating the Improbable, pp. 1 - 44Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
[2] , “Das Gesetz der Bevölkerungskonzentration,” Petermanns Mitteilungen 59, 74 (1913).Google Scholar
[3] , , et al., “Initial review of methods for cascading failure analysis in electric power transmission systems,” IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA (2008).Google Scholar
[6] , Size, Function and Life History, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (1984).Google Scholar
[7] , , and , Adv. Phys. 56, 167 (2007).
[8] , Mathematical Methods of Statistics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1946).Google Scholar
[10] , , and , “Complex systems analysis of series of blackouts: cascading failures, critical points and self-organization,” Chaos 17, 026103 (2007).Google Scholar
[11] , 1638, Two New Sciences, trans. H. Crew and A. de Salvio in 1914, New York: Dover (1954).Google Scholar
[13] , and , “Power-law distribution in high school education: effect of economical, teaching and study conditions,” arXiv.0301523v1 (2003).Google Scholar
[14] , On Being the Right Size and Other Essays, ed. , New York: Oxford University Press (1985).Google Scholar
[15] , and , “Trends in the history of large blackouts in the United States,” Energy Policy 37, 5249-5259 (2009).Google Scholar
[17] , “Information theory and statistical mechanics,” Phys. Rev. 106, 620 (1957); “Information theory and statistical mechanics II,” Phys. Rev. 108, 171 (1957).Google Scholar
[18] , Elements of Mathematical Biology, New York: Dover (1956) (first published by The Williams and Wilkins Co. in 1924).Google Scholar
[19] , “The frequency distribution of scientific productivity,” J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 16, 317 (1926).Google Scholar
[22] and , Introduction to the Quantitative Aspects of Social Phenomena, New York: Gordon and Breach (1974).Google Scholar
[23] Network Science, National Research Council of the National Academies, Washington DC, www.nap.edu (2005).
[27] , Scaling; Why Is Animal Size so Important?, London: Cambridge University Press (1984).Google Scholar
[28] , What Is Life?, New York: Cambridge University Press (1995) (first published in 1944).
[29] , “A mathematical theory of communication,” Bell Syst. J. 27, 379-423 and 623-656 (1948).
[30] , Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. 49, Part 1, 82 (1755).
[31] , “On the decrease of entropy in a thermodynamic system by the intervention of intelligent beings,” Behav. Sci. 9, 301 (1964), translated from Z. Phys.53, 840 (1929).Google Scholar
[32] , The Black Swan; The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House (2007).Google Scholar
[33] , On Growth and Form, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1917); 2nd edn. (1963).Google Scholar
[38] , and , “Maximizing information exchange between complex networks,” Physics Reports 468, 1-99 (2008).Google Scholar
[40] , Age and Area: A Study in Geographical Distribution and Origin of Species, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1922).Google Scholar
[41] and , Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, 12th edn., London: C. Griffin and Co. (1940).Google Scholar
[42] , Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology, Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley (1949).Google Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.