Complex Systems

Historically, the core sciences (physics, chemistry, and biology) focused on understanding the individual components of a system--like sub-atomic particles, atoms, DNA, or cells. Physicists are masters of this "bottom-up" approach to science, where they first figure out how the most basic units of a system work before making generalizations or predictions of how a system composed of these units might behave.

However, as our knowledge of "system components" becomes ever broader and deeper, scientists now realize that understanding the "big picture" of a large system, like the Earth's weather patterns, isn't guaranteed by knowing everything there is to know about its parts. For example, we have a great deal of understanding of fluid dynamics (how particles flow around) and thermodynamics (the average characteristics of a large number of particles, like temperature), but we still can't precisely predict the weather until the storm is just over the hill.

It turns out that systems composed of an enormous amount of interacting components--whether they are particles, cells, or people--will behave on the whole in ways that cannot be predicted by the individual behaviors of the components. This is what the study of complex systems is all about: look at how the components are organized and interact to explore how the entire system functions.

Related Links

The Complexity & Artificial Life Research Concept for Self-Organizing Systems
http://www.calresco.org
An interesting educational portal for learning more about all things complex.

The Santa Fe Institute
http://www.santafe.edu
A unique, interdisciplinary laboratory with a strong focus on complex systems.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi Research at Notre Dame
http://www.nd.edu/~networks
One of the premier researchers in complex systems and networks. He also has several popular articles and a new book on complex systems.

Survey of Complex Systems Research
http://www-psych.nmsu.edu/~linda/complex
An extensive overview of people and projects active in the field of complex systems.

A Guide to Complex Systems
http://necsi.org/guide
From the New England Complex Systems Institute, this guide includes a concept map of how complex systems are viewed (still under development).

Complexity Systems Virtual Library
http://lorenz.mur.csu.edu.au/vl_complex/topics.html
Explore the primary issues in complex systems through these specific topical directories.

Nonlinear Dynamics and Complex Systems Theory
http://www.cna.org/isaac/Glossb.htm
A glossary of terms and concepts used in complex systems studies.

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