THE BOOK IS OUT!!!


Oct 10, 2018

Hot from the printer press:

 

“Introduction to the Theory of Complex Systems”

 

 

We proudly announce: The new student textbook by Stefan Thurner, Rudolf Hanel, and Peter Klimek has just appeared at Oxford University Press!

“This book will surely become a standard text for anyone who wants to seriously understand complexity no matter what their background or stage of career. It is written from a physicist’s perspective, stressing mechanism, underlying principles and mathematical rigour, yet is eminently readable and pedagogical.”

 

Geoffrey West, Santa Fe Institute

Time for an overview

 

The three researchers, all of them members of the Hub, noticed a lack of a simple, hence comprehensive overview of the field when they were teaching beginners classes. “The existing introductions to complex systems, network theory, agent-based models et cetera – although some of them classics – represent 20th century knowledge,” says Stefan. Hence, since the turn of the millennium complexity science has been prospering and progressing, not least due to the exponential rise of data gathering devices and thus: data.

 

“Most students entering science today will later work as data analysts,” says Peter, who noticed a constant rise in the number of students from different disciplines in their “Introduction to complex systems” class. “Our textbook not only gives an overview, but also provides the up-to-date mathematical knowledge to deal with data, in particular with complex systems,” he adds.

 

Understanding complex systems

 

“Practically all areas of life on this planet are constantly confronted with complex systems, be it ecosystems, societies, traffic, financial markets, opinion formation and spreading, or the internet and social media,” reads the summary of the book.

 

What are complex systems? Up to now, definitions were not standardized. For their book the authors attempt to define them as systems with many interacting agents that change their properties while – and because – they are interacting. For instance, a tax changes the economy, that changes the income, that changes the spending of the people, that changes the economy; or the Internet prospers by being used what prompts inventions that change the Internet use–and at some point society as whole…

 

Complexity used to be a tough nut to crack for scientists. But Big Data changes the picture. For the first time in history complex systems can be approached empirically: With data, physicists are able to develop and test models, pursue experiments, verify or falsify their hypotheses – with the aim to predict and eventually manage complex systems.

 

Data made the field so interesting for physicists. “We are the folks that keep on trying until we have a solution,” Stefan claims. “Physicists explained gases, opened up fields like astronomy or chemistry; now physicists are up to understand the much more complicated world of complexity.”

“Complexity until now has been lacking a strong theoretical underpinning. Now it has one. This book is a tour de force. Excellent!”

 

Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute

Complex systems work like algorithms

 

The usual analytical equations that we know from physics don’t apply for these constantly changing, interacting, evolving systems. “Complex systems don’t work like trajectoriers of cannonballs or the movement of planets,” Rudi exemplifies. “That’s why we need new mathematical and statistical tools.”

 

For their book, Stefan, Rudi and Peter scrolled through literally thousands of articles – the work of a whole generation of complexity scientists. “Many of them tell the same story over and over again, without even knowing it,” Peter recalls. The book is the effort to connect the many loose ends and to build what the three authors call a “coherent framework” to approach complex systems. “They work like adaptive algorithms,” says Rudi. “We present a simple, comprehensive definition that describes almost all complex systems.”

 

In practice this simple definition is just a starting point, as a complex system can be very specific. “99 percent of our work is to find out which of the specific properties are relevant to describe and manage a given complex system,” Stefan points out. “But our claim is that the underlying assumption – the basic notion of a complex system as an algorithm – remains always the same.”

 

No unified theory. Yet…

 

Doesn’t this sound a bit like a “unified theory” for complex systems? The researchers show a broad smile (they are physicists, after all…).

 

Stefan: “Maybe it is too early to call it a unified theory, yet to a certain extend it is. We have lots of pieces. It is as if you were looking at a fragmentary mosaic: You can see already how the whole looks like. This is where we are now.”

 

One of the masterminds of the Santa Fe Institute, Brian Arthur, for his part thinks they are on the right track. “Complexity until now has been lacking a strong theoretical underpinning. Now it has one,” he stated after having read the “Introduction to the Theory of Complex Systems” by Stefan Thurner, Rudolf Hanel and Peter Klimek. “This book is a tour de force. Excellent!”

 

 

 

[ p.s.: Find HERE the review of the book by Santa Fe Institute from Oct. 26, 2018. ]


Research News

Mar 27, 2023

The anatomy of the current antibiotic shortage

Press

Sturm statt Elfenbeinturm [feat. Hannah Metzler]


Falter, Mar 21, 2023

Publication

V.D.P. Servedio, M. R. Ferreira, N. Reisz, R. Costas, S. Thurner

Scale-free growth in regional scientific capacity building explains long-term scientific dominance

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 167 (2023) 113020

Research News

Mar 20, 2023

Climate-tech innovation needs corporate investment

Press

La contingencia y la movilidad eléctrica [span. | feat. Rafael Prieto-curiel]


Heraldo de México, Mar 28, 2023

Press

Neue Studie: Wie es zum Antibiotika-Mangel kam [feat. Peter Klimek]


Die Presse, Mar 27, 2023

Publication

J. Chen, E. Mittendorfer-Rutz, L. Berg, M. Noriedam, M. Sijbrandij, P. Klimek

Association of common mental disorders and related multimorbidity with subsequent labor market marginalization among refugee and Swedish-born young adults

Frontiers in Public Health 11 (2023) 1054261

Research News

Mar 27, 2023

The anatomy of the current antibiotic shortage - more details

Event

CSH Talk by Jan Korbel: "Homophily-based social group formation in a spin-glass self-assembly framework"


Mar 31, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Publication

S. Daniotti, B. Monechi, E. Ubaldi

A maximum entropy approach for the modelling of car-sharing parking dynamics

Scientific Repots 13 (2023) 2993

Event

CSH Talk by Michael Szell: "Bicycle infrastructure data and networks: Opportunities and limitations"


Apr 04, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Talk by Rafael Prieto-Curiel: "Sustainable mobility in large cities"


Apr 07, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Research News

Mar 27, 2023

The anatomy of the current antibiotic shortage

Press

Sturm statt Elfenbeinturm [feat. Hannah Metzler]


Falter, Mar 21, 2023

Publication

V.D.P. Servedio, M. R. Ferreira, N. Reisz, R. Costas, S. Thurner

Scale-free growth in regional scientific capacity building explains long-term scientific dominance

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 167 (2023) 113020

Research News

Mar 20, 2023

Climate-tech innovation needs corporate investment

Press

La contingencia y la movilidad eléctrica [span. | feat. Rafael Prieto-curiel]


Heraldo de México, Mar 28, 2023

Press

Neue Studie: Wie es zum Antibiotika-Mangel kam [feat. Peter Klimek]


Die Presse, Mar 27, 2023

Publication

J. Chen, E. Mittendorfer-Rutz, L. Berg, M. Noriedam, M. Sijbrandij, P. Klimek

Association of common mental disorders and related multimorbidity with subsequent labor market marginalization among refugee and Swedish-born young adults

Frontiers in Public Health 11 (2023) 1054261

Research News

Mar 27, 2023

The anatomy of the current antibiotic shortage - more details

Event

CSH Talk by Jan Korbel: "Homophily-based social group formation in a spin-glass self-assembly framework"


Mar 31, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Publication

S. Daniotti, B. Monechi, E. Ubaldi

A maximum entropy approach for the modelling of car-sharing parking dynamics

Scientific Repots 13 (2023) 2993

Event

CSH Talk by Michael Szell: "Bicycle infrastructure data and networks: Opportunities and limitations"


Apr 04, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Talk by Rafael Prieto-Curiel: "Sustainable mobility in large cities"


Apr 07, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Research News

Mar 27, 2023

The anatomy of the current antibiotic shortage

Research News

Mar 27, 2023

The anatomy of the current antibiotic shortage - more details

Research News

Mar 20, 2023

Climate-tech innovation needs corporate investment

Research News

Mar 16, 2023

A new approach to measuring multidirectional polarization

Research News

Mar 16, 2023

How countries can benefit from linking data

News

Mar 15, 2023

Meet the "data magician"

Spotlight

Mar 14, 2023

Irrationally fascinating

News

Mar 13, 2023

Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) - a comment by Bernhard Haslhofer

Research News

Mar 13, 2023

A new and better way to create word lists

News

Mar 6, 2023

CSH takes the lead in supply chain research with ASCII

News

Mar 6, 2023

CSH übernimmt mit ASCII eine Vorreiterrolle in der Lieferkettenforschung

News

Mar 6, 2023

Peter Klimek: „Wir müssen die Produktions- und Liefernetzwerke besser kennenlernen“

Press

La contingencia y la movilidad eléctrica [span. | feat. Rafael Prieto-curiel]


Heraldo de México, Mar 28, 2023

Press

Neue Studie: Wie es zum Antibiotika-Mangel kam [feat. Peter Klimek]


Die Presse, Mar 27, 2023

Press

Sturm statt Elfenbeinturm [feat. Hannah Metzler]


Falter, Mar 21, 2023

Press

Impfpflicht und politischer Einfluss: Experten ziehen Bilanz über drei Jahre Pandemie [feat. Peter Klimek]


Die Presse, Mar 19, 2023

Press

"War of Words: Scientists Reveal How to Create the Ultimate Word List for Different Languages" [feat. Anna Di Natale]


Newswav, Mar 14, 2023

Press

Frauen in der Chefetage – das vernachlässigte Potenzial [feat. Matthias Raddant]


Wiener Zeitung, Mar 8, 2023

Press

Top-Forscher Klimek widmet sich dem Lieferketten-Problem [feat.Peter Klimek]


Kurier.at, Mar 6, 2023

Publication

S. Daniotti, B. Monechi, E. Ubaldi

A maximum entropy approach for the modelling of car-sharing parking dynamics

Scientific Repots 13 (2023) 2993

Publication

R. Prieto-Curiel, J. E. Patino, B. Anderson

Scaling of the morphology of African cities

PNAS 120 (9) (2023) e2214254120

Publication

J. Chen, E. Mittendorfer-Rutz, L. Berg, M. Noriedam, M. Sijbrandij, P. Klimek

Association of common mental disorders and related multimorbidity with subsequent labor market marginalization among refugee and Swedish-born young adults

Frontiers in Public Health 11 (2023) 1054261

Publication

A. Di Natale, D. Garcia

LEXpander: applying colexification networks to automated lexicon expansion

Behaviour Research Methods (2023)

Publication

V.D.P. Servedio, M. R. Ferreira, N. Reisz, R. Costas, S. Thurner

Scale-free growth in regional scientific capacity building explains long-term scientific dominance

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 167 (2023) 113020

Publication

C. Deischinger, E. Dervic, S. Nopp, M. Kaleta, P. Klimek, A. Kautzky-Willer

Diabetes mellitus is associated with a higher relative risk for venous thromboembolism in females than in males

Diabetes Res Clin Pract. (2022) 36471550

Publication

A. Nerpel, et al.

SARS-ANI: a global open access dataset of reported SARS-CoV-2 events in animals

Scientific Data 9 (438) (2022)

Publication

M. Leutner, M. Butylina, C. Matzhold, et al.

Simvastatin therapy in higher dosages deteriorates bone quality: Consistent evidence from population-wide patient data and interventional mouse studies

Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 158 (2023) 114089

Publication

E. D. Lee, X. Chen, B. C. Daniels

Discovering sparse control strategies in neural activity

PLoS Computational Biology (May 27) (2022)

Publication

H. Kong, S. Martin-Gutierrez, F. Karimi

Influence of the first-mover advantage on the gender disparities in physics citations

Communications Physics 5 (243) (2022)

Publication

T.M. Pham, J. Korbel, R. Hanel, S. Thurner

Empirical social triad statistics can be explained with dyadic homophylic interactions

PNAS 119 (2022) e2121103119

Event

CSH Talk by Jan Korbel: "Homophily-based social group formation in a spin-glass self-assembly framework"


Mar 31, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Talk by Michael Szell: "Bicycle infrastructure data and networks: Opportunities and limitations"


Apr 04, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Talk by Rafael Prieto-Curiel: "Sustainable mobility in large cities"


Apr 07, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Talk by Tatiana Filatova: "Cities, markets and climate change: a complexity perspective"


Apr 19, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH-ITU Copenhagen Workshop: "Sustainable Mobility: Data, Networks, and Complexity"


Apr 14, 2023 | 8:3013:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Workshop: "Mineral resources and food security"


Apr 26, 2023 | 10:0017:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Event

CSH Talk by Norbert Streitz: "Perspectives for Designing Complex Citizens-City Relationships: Participation, Cooperation, Co-Creation and Empowerment"


May 03, 2023 | 15:0016:00

Complexity Science Hub Vienna