Reading Group

The Reading Group meets biweekly on Wednesdays, 11:45am-12:35pm, in the Decision Theater (first floor) in Farrell Hall (Trinity Campus).

Date Author Title
Spring 2013
May 15 Dirk Helbing "Globally networked risks and how to respond"
April 24 Daniel W. McShea, Wim Hordijk "Complexity by Subtraction"
April 10 Thomas Grund, Christian Waloszek, Dirk Helbing "How Natural Selection Can Create Both Self- and Other-Regarding Preferences, and Networked Minds"
March 27 Joshua M. Epstein "Agent-Based Computational Models and Generative Social Science"
Feb 27 Stefan Thurner, J. Doyne Farmer, John Geanakoplos "Leverage causes fat tails and clustered volatility"
Feb 13 Jeff Clune, Jean-Baptiste Mouret and Hod Lipson "The evolutionary origins of modularity"
Jan30 Tobias Galla and J. Doyne Farmer "Complex dynamics in learning complicated games"
Fall 2012
Dec 5 Sugihara et al Detecting Causality in Complex Ecosystems
Nov 7 Dobson et al Complex systems analysis of series of blackouts: Cascading failure, critical points, and self-organization
Oct 24 Torres-Sosa, Huang & Aldana Criticality is an emergent property of genetic networks that exhibit evolvability
Sept 26 Bond et al A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization (see also: supplement; press [Markoff, NYTimes])
Sept 12 ENCODE Project Consortium An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome
(see also: press [Maher, Nature]; press [Kolata, NY Times])
Spring 2012
June 20 Feng et al Linking agent-based models and stochastic models of financial markets
June 6 Bettencourt et al Urban Scaling and Its Deviations: Revealing the Structure of Wealth, Innovation and Crime Across Cities
(see also: Commentary [by authors])
May 23 Gallup et al Visual attention and the acquisition of information in human crowds
(see also: press)
May 2 Ugander et al Structural Diversity in Social Contagion
(see also: press)
Apr 11 Johnson, Zhao, Hunsader, Meng, Ravindar, Carran & Tivnan "Financial black swans driven by ultrafast machine ecology"
(see also: press)
Mar 28 Thurner, Szell & Sinatra Emergence of Good Conduct, Scaling and Zipf Laws in Human Behavioral Sequences in an Online World (see also: press)
Mar 14 Simini, Gonzalez, Maritan & Barabasi A universal model for mobility and migration patterns
(see also: supplement; press)
Feb 22 Nishimoto, Vu, Naselaris, Benjamini, Yu & Gallant Reconstructing Visual Experiences from Brain Activity Evoked by Natural Movies
(see also: group website; press release; Youtube clip)
Feb 8 Thomas C. Schelling Dynamic Models of Segregation
Jan 25 Couzin et al Uninformed Individuals Promote Democratic Consensus in Animal Groups
(see also: Commentary: Can Ignorance Promote Democracy? [West & Bergstrom])
Jan 11 Reshef et al Detecting Novel Associations in Large Data Sets
(see also: Commentary by Philip Ball; Commentary in Science)
Fall 2011
Nov 30 Khatiba et al & Foldit Players Algorithm discovery by protein folding game players
Nov 9 Pickard et al Time-critical social mobilization
Oct 26 Petersen et al Statistical laws governing fluctuations in word use from word birth to word death
(see also: Google's Ngram Viewer; related work with Google Books: Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books)
Oct 12 Crane & Sornette Robust dynamic classes revealed by measuring the response function of a social system
(see also: Endogenous versus exogenous origins of crises)
Sept 28 Johnson & Fowler The evolution of overconfidence
(see also: News & Views perspective)
Sept 7 Hsiang, Meng & Cane Civil conflicts are associated with the global climate
(see also: News & Views perspective and Criticism & response [see comment #5])
Summer 2011
Aug 25 Ott, Choi, Cardie & Hancock Finding Deceptive Opinion Spam by Any Stretch of the Imagination
(see also: In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5)
July 28 Sparrow, Liu & Wegner Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips
(see also: Commentary and Forbes' article)
June 30 Romero, Meeder & Kleinberg "Differences in the Mechanics of Information Diffusion Across Topics: Idioms, Political Hashtags, and Complex Contagion on Twitter"
(see also: Jon Kleinberg's website)
June 16 Liu, Slotine & Barabasi "Controllability of complex networks"
(see also: companion website)
June 2 Helbing & Yu "The outbreak of cooperation among success-driven individuals under noisy conditions"
May 19 Waibel, Floreano, & Keller "A Quantitative Test of Hamilton's Rule for the Evolution of Altruism" + Additional Reading (Aatish)
Spring 2011
May 5 Mlot, Tovey & Hu "Fire ants self-assemble into waterproof rafts to survive floods" + Additional Reading (Grossman)
April 21 Quentin D. Atkinson "Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa" + Additional Reading (Wade)
April 21 M. Dunn et al "Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals" + Additional Reading (Keim)
April 7 M.S. Harr'e et al "The aggregate complexity of decisions in the game of Go"
March 24 Wilf & Evans "There's plenty of time for evolution"
Feb 24 John Geanakoplos "Solving the Present Crisis and Managing the Leverage Cycle"
Feb 10 S. Cauchemez et al. "Role of social networks in shaping disease transmission during a community outbreak of 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza" [see article on results]
Jan 27 J.-B. Michel et al. "Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books"
 
Fall 2010
Dec 8 Stuart Kauffman Presentation: "Res Extensa and Res Potentia: A Theory of Consciousness"
Nov 17 (no paper) Roundtable discussion: Current boundaries of complexity science, big and small
Nov 3 Wang, Liao & Zhang "Genomic patterns of pleiotropy and the evolution
of complexity
"
Oct 20 Buldyrev, Parshani, Paul, Stanley & Havlin "Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks"
Commentary: "Networked Networks Are Prone to Epic Failure"
Oct 6 Woolley, Chabris, Pentland, Hashmi & Malone "Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups"
Sept 22 Espinosa-Soto & Wagner "Specialization can drive the evolution of modularity"
Sept 8 Nowak, Tarnita & Wilson "The evolution of eusociality"
Commentary: "Scientists square off on evolutionary value of helping relatives"
 
Spring 2009
April 8 Schmidt & Lipson "Distilling free-form natural laws from experimental data"
Feb 25 Kearns, Judd, Tan & Wortman "Behavioral experiments on biased voting in networks"
Feb 11 Fowler & Christakis "Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: Longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study"
Feb 4 Braess et al. "On a paradox of traffic planning" (read the original in German)
Commentary: "Preface to 'On a paradox of traffic planning'"
Jan 21 Kashtan & Alon "Spontaneous evolution of modularity and network motifs"
 
Fall 2008
Oct 29 Guimera, Uzzi, Spiro & Amaral "Team assembly mechanisms determine collaboration network structure and team performance"
Oct 22 Wuchty, Jones & Uzzi "The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge"
Oct 8 Youn, Gastner & Jeong "The price of anarchy in transportation networks: Efficiency and optimality control"
Oct 1 Hill, Bentley & Dunbar "Network scaling reveals consistent fractal pattern in hierarchical mammalian societies"
Sept 24 Kemp & Tenenbaum "The discovery of structural form" + appendix
Sept 17 Gonzalez, Hidalgo & Barabasi "Understanding individual human mobility patterns"
Sept 10 Chris Anderson "The end of theory: The data deluge makes the scientific method obsolete"
 
Spring 2008
April 24 S. C. Albright

S. Arbesman & S. Strogatz
"A statistical analysis of hitting streaks in baseball"

"A journey to baseball's alternate universe"
April 3 Richard Breen "Social mobility in Europe"
Feb 21 Michael Batty

Makse et al.
"The size, scale, and shape of cities"

"Modelling urban growth patterns"
Feb 7 Lieberman, Michel, Jackson, Tang1 & Nowak

Atkinson, Meade, Venditti, Greenhill, & Pagel
"Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language"



"Languages evolve in punctuational bursts"
Jan 24 W. B. Rouse "Complex engineered, organizational and natural systems: Issues underlying the complexity of systems and fundamental research needed to address these issues"
 
Fall 2007
Nov 07 K. Zhang & T. J. Sejnowski

Chen, Hall, & Chklovskii
"A universal scaling law between gray matter and white matter of cerebral cortex"

"Wiring optimization can relate neuronal structure and function"
Oct. 24 R. D'Souza et al.

A.-L. Barabasi & R. Albert
"Emergence of tempered preferential attachment from optimization"

"Emergence of scaling in random networks"
Oct 10 Liu et al.

Hidalgo et al.
"Complexity of coupled human and natural systems"

"The product space conditions the development of nations"
Sept 26 Lim, Metzler, & Bar-Yam "Global pattern formation and ethnic/cultural violence"
Sept 12 Michel Balinski & Rida Laraki "A theory of measuring, electing, and ranking"
 
Spring 2007
Apr 25 Bettencourt, Lobo, Helbing, Kuhnert, & West "Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities"
Apr 11
Michael Gastner & Mark Newman
"Shape and efficiency in spatial distribution networks"
"The spatial structure of networks"
"Optimal design of spatial distribution networks"
Mar 28
Shen-Orr, Milo, Mangan, & Alon

Itzkovitz, Levitt, Kastan, Milo, Itzkovitz, & Alon
"Network motifs in the transcriptional regulation network of Escherichia coli"

"Coarse-graining and self-dissimilarity of complex networks"
Mar 07
Philip Ball "The physical modelling of human social systems"
Feb 21
D. Rind

Kerry Emanuel
"Complexity and climate"

"Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years"
Feb 07
Weng, Bhalla, & Iyengar

Koch & Laurent
"Complexity in biological signaling systems"

"Complexity and the nervous system"
Jan 24 George M. Whitesides, et al. "Complexity in chemistry"
Jan 10 P.W. Anderson "More is different"