Connections

Do differences in history, culture and education influence whether scientists focus on pieces and particulars, or make broad connections?

Optimality is a key organizing principle of science, but the patterns of connections within real-world networks do not always respect it.

The bizarre absence of certain gene classes in eukaryotes is key to understanding their evolution and complex links with prokaryotes.

Complex engineered and biological systems share protocol-based architectures that make them robust and evolvable, but with hidden fragilities to rare perturbations.

Understanding the dynamics of infectious-disease transmission demands a holistic approach, yet today's models largely ignore how epidemics change individual behaviour.

Could the evolution of multicellular life have been fuelled by conflict among selective forces acting at different levels of organization?

Networks of interactions between thousands of molecules within cells seem to defy comprehension, but shared principles of design may simplify the picture.

Between the nano- and micrometre scales, the collective behaviour of matter can give rise to startling emergent properties that hint at the nexus between biology and physics.

Subjective awareness may depend on neural networks in the brain supporting complex wiring schemes and dynamic patterns of activity.

Understanding how particular natural systems operate without central control will reveal whether such systems share general properties.

Biodiversity researchers have focused on diversity at the cost of ignoring the networks of interactions between organisms that characterize ecosystems.

To understand cells as dynamic systems, mathematical tools are needed to fill the gap between molecular interactions and physiological consequences.

By tapping into social cues, individuals in a group may gain access to higher-order computational capacities that mirror the group's responses to its environment.

Physicists come from a tradition of looking for all-encompassing laws, but is this the best approach to use when probing complex biological systems?

If handled appropriately, data about Internet-based communication and interactivity could revolutionize our understanding of collective human behaviour.

The emerging picture of microbes as gene-swapping collectives demands a revision of such concepts as organism, species and evolution itself.