Abstract: There
are networks in almost every part of our lives. Some of them are
familiar and obvious: the Internet, the power grid, the road network.
Others are less obvious but just as important. The patterns of
friendships or acquaintances between people form a social network.
Boards of Directors join together in networks of corporations. The
workings of the body's cells are dictated by a metabolic network of
chemical reactions. In recent years, sociologists, physicists,
biologists, and others have learned how to probe these networks and
uncover their structures, shedding light on the inner workings of
systems ranging from bacteria to the whole of human society. This
lecture looks at some new discoveries regarding networks, how these
discoveries were made, and what they tell us about the way the world
works.
http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/276