Complexity science and its methodological applications have increased in popularity in social science during the last two decades. One key concept within complexity science is that of self-organization. Self-organization is used to refer to the emergence of stable patterns through autonomous and self-reinforcing dynamics at the micro-level. In spite of its potential relevance for the study of s...

Animals process sensory information in order to generate behavior that matches the affordances of their environment. The statistical properties of an environment, however, appear substantially different to an inexperienced individual and to its more skilled fellow. On the one hand, appropriate learning opportunities may rarely occur by chance, while on the other hand a concentration on well-lea...

LETTERS 185 Misrepresentation and Fantasy: R. N. Cahn, J. D. Jackson, C. Quigg * A National Institute for the Environment: P. D. Saundry * Adaptive Optics in Astronomy: F. Seitz * Space Science Crunch: J. Katz; H. Tananbaum * National Protein and Nucleic Acid Databases: E. Adman, M. Gellert, M. Cohen, N. M. Allewell, B. S. Baker, J. Villafranca * Smallpox Virus: Better to Store?: P. Hess 0 Elep...

This paper categorizes self-organization processes in nature into four categories: physics, mathematics, statics, and mechanics—abstracting these processes into simplified analytical methods. It is also an investigation into some fundamental principles concerning the logic of form optimization in nature in relation to special and physical constraints. One of the chief aims of this study is to m...

O ne of the most important recent discoveries in the field of genome biology has been the demonstration that genomes are nonrandomly organized in the cell nucleus (1, 2). Examples now abound of chromosomes or genes localizing to a particular location in the nucleus or undergoing positional changes as they became activated or repressed. Much of what we know about how genomes are organized in spa...

Self-organization of dynamic microtubules via interactions with associated motors plays a critical role in spindle formation. The microtubule-based mechanisms underlying other aspects of cellular morphogenesis, such as the formation and development of protrusions from neuronal cells is less well understood. In a recent study, we investigated the molecular mechanism that underlies the massive re...

This book deals with self-organization in biological systems and constitutes a much-needed supplement to the mainstream treatment of behavioural ecology by Krebs & Davies (1997). In combination with Termites, Turtles and Traffic Jams by Michel Resnick (1994), it is an excellent textbook for courses on self-organized biological and social systems. In an admirable way it combines detailed experim...

We introduce a simple model which shows non-trivial self organized critical properties. The model describes a system of interacting units, modelled by Polya urns, subject to perturbations and which occasionally break down. Three equivalent formulations-stochastic, quenched and deterministic-are shown to reproduce the same dynamics. Among the novel features of the model are a non-homogeneous sta...

Life is held together on its various levels — cells, organs (e.g., the brain or immune system), organisms, societies and ecosystems — by general mechanisms of organization, mechanisms that also information technology will eventually have to exploit in order to overcome its complexity barrier. There are good reasons to believe that organization in all its forms can be understood by a common set ...

Large networks of spiking neurons show abrupt changes in their collective dynamics resembling phase transitions studied in statistical physics. An example of this phenomenon is the transition from irregular, noise-driven dynamics to regular, self-sustained behavior observed in networks of integrate-and-fire neurons as the interaction strength between the neurons increases. In this work we show ...