| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 301 pages) : illustrations (some color), color map. |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Series |
Studies of nonlinear phenomena in life science ; v. 13
|
|
Studies of nonlinear phenomena in life sciences ; v. 13.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-287) and index. |
| Summary |
This book provides a lens through which modern society is shown to depend on complex networks for its stability. One way to achieve this understanding is through the development of a new kind of science, one that is not explicitly dependent on the traditional disciplines of biology, economics, physics, sociology and so on; a science of networks. This text reviews, in non-mathematical language, what we know about the development of science in the twenty-first century and how that knowledge influences our world. In addition, it distinguishes the two-tiered science of the twentieth century, based on experiment and theory (data and knowledge) from the three-tiered science of experiment, computation and theory (data, information and knowledge) of the twenty-first century in everything from psychophysics to climate change. This book is unique in that it addresses two parallel lines of argument. The first line is general and intended for a lay audience, but one that is scientifically sophisticated, explaining how the paradigm of science has been changed to accommodate the computer and large-scale computation. The second line of argument addresses what some consider the seminal scientific problem of climate change. The authors show how a misunderstanding of the change in the scientific paradigm has led to a misunderstanding of complex phenomena in general, and the causes of global warming in particular. |
| Contents |
1. Why a science of networks? 1.1. The science of data, information and knowledge. 1.2. The face of science. 1.3. Framing the climate change debate -- 2. Data. 2.1. Physics as a scientific paradigm. 2.2. Time series. 2.3. Fractal statistics. 2.4. Solar and climate variability -- 3. Information. 3.1. Entropy. 3.2. Pareto's law. 3.3. Entropy and data processing. 3.4. Sun-climate complexity matching? -- 4. Knowledge. 4.1. Mathematics enables knowledge. 4.2. The Pareto principle : the 80/20 rule. 4.3. What we know about complex networks. 4.4. The Sun-climate linking : an ongoing debate -- 5. A world of disrupted networks. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
System analysis.
|
|
System analysis. |
|
Science -- Data processing.
|
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Science -- Data processing. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
|
Electronic books.
|
| Added Author |
Scafetta, Nicola.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: West, Bruce J. Disrupted networks. Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, ©2010 9789814304306 (OCoLC)496951814 |
| ISBN |
9789814304313 (electronic book) |
|
981430431X (electronic book) |
|
9789814304306 |
|
9814304301 |
|
