Our networked world
More than numbers Numbers are one way we measure the world. From the negative temperatures on a thermometer, to our bank account balances precise to the nearest cent, or to the number of followers we have on Twitter, we use numbers routinely in our everyday lives. Our early education reflects the importance of numbers, and…
The geometry of social networks
A key insight of general relativity is the view of the universe as a four-dimensional geometric space. Gravitation and other forces within physics are explained as properties of the geometry. Analogously, string theory includes many dimensions, as many as ten or more, in an effort to explain all the forces of the universe. Given the geometry…
Mind and action
When visiting the Curie Museum in Paris this May, I became aware that much of Marie Curie’s later work was devoted to the medical uses of radiation. Here was one of the most brilliant scientists of all time, two-time nobel prize winner, with a clear view towards the applications of her theoretical work. While I had…
How to burn a network
We have been taught since we were children not to disrupt the world around us. Keep quiet… Don’t make waves… Don’t start fires… What would you do, however, if you were encouraged to set fires? That is, burn things down as quickly as possible. It may seem like an odd question, and such thoughts in real…