Complexity

videoBiology
Dive deep into an egg cell to see how ageing reboots when a new life begins
2 minutes

essayNeuroscience
The entangled brain
The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony
Luiz Pessoa

videoPhysics
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own
10 minutes

essayPhilosophy of science
The forces of chance
Social scientists cling to simple models of reality – with disastrous results. Instead they must embrace chaos theory
Brian Klaas

videoNeuroscience
This intricate map of a fruit fly brain could signal a revolution in neuroscience
2 minutes

essayComplexity
Problem-solving matter
Life is starting to look a lot less like an outcome of chemistry and physics, and more like a computational process
David C Krakauer & Chris Kempes

essayHistory of ideas
Chaos and cause
Can a butterfly’s wings trigger a distant hurricane? The answer depends on the perspective you take: physics or human agency
Erik Van Aken

videoBiology
Explore a bioluminescent world of cellular life via cutting-edge microscopy
27 minutes

videoAnimals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes

videoPhysics
There’s a striking link between quantum and astronomic scales. What could it mean?
5 minutes

essayCities
Cities that grow themselves
They are spreading like branching plants across the globe. Should we rein cities in or embrace their biomorphic potential?
Josh Berson

essayBiology
Living orbs of light
Solving the mystery of how and why fireflies flash in time can illuminate the physics of complex systems
Orit Peleg

essayEcology and environmental sciences
Nature’s playbook
From termite queens to the carbon cycle, nature knows how to avoid network collapse. Human designers should pay heed
Ruth DeFries

essayAnthropology
What pastoralists know
Pastoralists are experts in managing extreme variability. In a volatile world economy, bankers should learn how they do it
Ian Scoones

essayComplexity
All stars
Is a great team more than the sum of its players? Complexity science reveals the role of strategy, synergy, swarming and more
Jessica Flack & Cade Massey

essayComplexity
Uncertain times
The pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity – seeing human society as a complex system opens a better future for us all
Jessica Flack & Melanie Mitchell

essayEvolution
Catastrophes and calms
Evolution is extraordinarily creative in the wake of a cataclysm. How does life keep steadily ticking over in between?
Renée A Duckworth

essayPhysics
From chaos to free will
A crude understanding of physics sees determinism at work in the Universe. Luckily, molecular uncertainty ensures this isn’t so
George Ellis

essayThe future
At the limits of thought
Science today stands at a crossroads: will its progress be driven by human minds or by the machines that we’ve created?
David C Krakauer

essayTechnology and the self
Collaborators in creation
Our world is a system, in which physical and social technologies co-evolve. How can we shape a process we don’t control?
Doyne Farmer, Fotini Markopoulou, Eric Beinhocker & Steen Rasmussen

essayBiology
Life ≠ alive
A cat is alive, a sofa is not: that much we know. But a sofa is also part of life. Information theory tells us why
Michael Lachmann & Sara Walker

ideaComputing and artificial intelligence
How do you teach a car that a snowman won’t walk across the road?
Melanie Mitchell

essayPhilosophy of science
The blind spot
It’s tempting to think science gives a God’s-eye view of reality. But we forget the place of human experience at our peril
Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser & Evan Thompson

ideaComplexity
When science hits a limit, learn to ask different questions
Chris Kempes & Van Savage