Networks: An Integrative Theme in the Natural and Social Sciences

Speaker: Professor Sanjay Jain, Professor of Physics, University of Delhi

 

Chair: Prof. Ajoy Ghatak, former Professor of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

 

Networks underlie some of the most fascinating phenomena around us: life, society, and thought. The study of these networks is part of a new movement in science that respects the essential indivisibility of the complex systems that exhibit these phenomena and attempts to understand them as wholes and not just as the sum of their parts. The talk will give some examples of this --- networks of molecules in living organisms, of species in ecosystems, social and economic networks in societies, neural networks in brains --- and also describe how their study is breaking down barriers between disciplines. An example of how such an approach helps illuminate the origin of life will be discussed