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complex systems

Latest Articles

Aerial view of forest at the edge of clear-cut land. The vegetation growing back in the clearing is not forest.
ecology

Simpler Math Predicts How Close Ecosystems Are to Collapse

By Anna Gibbs
March 6, 2023
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By replacing thousands of equations with just one, ecology modelers can more accurately assess how close fragile environments are to a disastrous “tipping point.”

Nikta Fakhri looks at a test tube.
Q&A

Starfish Whisperer Develops a Physical Language of Life

By Charlie Wood
January 11, 2023
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Nikta Fakhri is adapting and extending concepts from physics to describe how tiny biological components give rise to living organisms.

2022 in Review

The Year in Math

By Konstantin Kakaes
December 22, 2022
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Four Fields Medals were awarded for major breakthroughs in geometry, combinatorics, statistical physics and number theory, even as mathematicians continued to wrestle with how computers are changing the discipline.

A video of a large chunk of ice breaking off of a glacier and crashing into the ocean.]
complex systems

Chaos Researchers Can Now Predict Perilous Points of No Return

By Ben Brubaker
September 15, 2022
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A custom-built machine learning algorithm can predict when a complex system is about to switch to a wildly different mode of behavior.

Illustration of a wheel made of motors connected by arms. The wheel is shown in different stretched and squashed configurations.
complex systems

Wheel Made of ‘Odd Matter’ Spontaneously Rolls Uphill

By Ben Brubaker
June 15, 2022
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Physicists have solved a key problem of robotic locomotion by revising the usual rules of interaction between simple component parts.

An illustration of a spherical universe sitting inside a machine hooked up to wires.
neural networks

How to Make the Universe Think for Us

By Charlie Wood
May 31, 2022
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Physicists are building neural networks out of vibrations, voltages and lasers, arguing that the future of computing lies in exploiting the universe’s complex physical behaviors.

Nobel Prize

Work on Earth’s Climate and Other Complex Systems Earns Nobel Prize in Physics

By Natalie Wolchover
October 5, 2021
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Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann have been honored for their work that led to reliable predictions of the effects of climate change. They will share the Nobel with Giorgio Parisi, who has made pioneering studies of chaotic physical systems.

Computer scientist and complexity researcher Carlos Gershenson of the National Autonomous University of Mexico stands by a busy urban roadway.
Q&A

Complexity Scientist Beats Traffic Jams Through Adaptation

By Rodrigo Pérez Ortega
September 28, 2020
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To tame urban traffic, the computer scientist Carlos Gershenson finds that letting transportation systems adapt and self-organize often works better than trying to predict and control them.

An ice sheet stretching into the distance.
Abstractions blog

How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)

By Howard Lee
July 21, 2020
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Earth’s climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here’s how each compares with modern climate change.


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