Complexity
“As our cultural artifacts are increasingly measured in gigabytes and terabytes, organizing, sorting and displaying information in an efficient way is crucial to advancing knowledge.” — Manuel Lima
-
On Adapting to Sandpiles
February 03, 2011
Joshua Cooper Ramo argues that in an era defined by instability, society must remain imminently flexible and turn disruption into a force for good.
-
Mapping Science
January 24, 2011
Mapmaking has a new challenge far more involved than depicting the traits of the physical world. As revealed in a stunning new collection, the Atlas of Science, the task at hand is at once ambitious and amorphous: to map the world of scientific knowledge, the collective wisdom that humans have accumulated over time — and continue to generate at an ever-increasing pace.
-
Calling All Mapmakers
January 13, 2011
complexity, data, geography, information, scale, visualization
-
The Web is Not a Gadget
January 05, 2011
The Web hasn’t been designed to do anything. And so it doesn’t do anything, much less anything smart, creative, or suggesting awareness.
-
On the Next Internet
November 25, 2010
Grid computing began as a data-management solution for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Now, it stands to redefine collaborative problem-solving in science and beyond.
-
Beneath the Surface
June 15, 2010
Powerful computer simulations may be the best method available to quantify the amount of oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon—and to predict where it will go.
-
The Question of Quantum Chaos
December 14, 2009
Chaos is everywhere in the natural world, present in the coiling of smoke rings, the fronds of ferns, and the beating of our hearts. But at the level of quantum physics, chaos as we now define it is unquantifiable.
-
Erasing Dark Energy
September 24, 2009
Why do we need dark energy to explain the observable universe? Two mathematicians propose an alternate solution that, while beautiful, may raise even more questions than it answers.
-
Mapping the Brain’s Highways
August 11, 2009
Neuroscientists are mapping out a complete atlas of connectivity in the human brain, but what’s emerging is a battle of scales.
-
Ants and Neurons
July 23, 2009
Insect colonies offer insight into the mysterious conversations of neurons, illuminating how billions of individual brain cells work in concert to make a single decision.
-
Serious Fun
June 23, 2009
Kodu doesn’t have realistic graphics, huge explosions, or even a way to win. But it just might change the way we think about the world.
-
Critical Mass
June 22, 2009
For particle physicists who study phase transitions, a traffic jam is simply a solid made up of idling cars.
-
The Living Robot
March 26, 2009
Researchers have developed a robot capable of learning and interacting with the world using a biological brain.
complexity, engineering, networks, neuroscience, robotics, technology
-
Beyond a Theory of Everything
February 17, 2009
On the very large and very small versus the very, very complex.
complexity, limits, scale, theory, truth
-
Adapting to a New Economy
February 12, 2009
An evolutionary perspective on economics can explain how we got into this current mess, and how we might find our way out.
-
Into the Landscape of Genomic Evolution
February 12, 2009
How the tools of genetic sequencing are changing the way we study the origins and development of life.
-
Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds
February 12, 2009
A video experiment in scale, condensing 4.6 billion years of history into a minute.
-
Chaos Begets Chaos
January 08, 2009
A new study supports the controversial claim that people can be morally swayed by the state of their surroundings.
complexity, crime, decision making, entropy, research, theory
-
Elaborate Origins for Simple Things
November 11, 2008
Nerveless and disc-shaped, Trichoplax still has some of complex life's most important cellular tools.
-
Rheanna Sand
October 17, 2008
On the order and chaos within us.
-
Out of the Blue
March 03, 2008
Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer?
cognition, complexity, design, information, innovation, neuroscience
-
Algorithmic Inelegance
January 07, 2008
-
A Profound Sense of Time
October 17, 2007
-
Science in 2006
January 16, 2006
-
New & Notable: 11/26 - 12/02
December 05, 2005
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
-
Ideas
I Tried Almost Everything Else
John Rinn, snowboarder, skateboarder, and “genomic origamist,” on why we should dumpster-dive in our genomes and the inspiration of a middle-distance runner.
-
Ideas
Going, Going, Gone
The second most common element in the universe is increasingly rare on Earth—except, for now, in America.
-
Ideas
Earth-like Planets Aren’t Rare
Renowned planetary scientist James Kasting on the odds of finding another Earth-like planet and the power of science fiction.
