Networks... Sexual, work...

Fonte Science, 29 April, 2005. Legenda:Evolution of the scientific enterprise. (Left) For centuries, creative individuals were embedded in an invisible college, that is, a community of scholars whose exchange of ideas represented the basis for scientific advances. Although intellectuals built on each other's work and communicated with each other, they published alone. Most great ideas were attributed to a few influential thinkers: Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein. Thus, the traditional scientific enterprise is best described by many isolated nodes (blue circles). (Middle) In the 20th century, science became an increasingly collaborative enterprise, resulting in such iconic pairs as the physicist Crick and the biologist Watson (left), who were responsible for unraveling DNA's structure. The joint publications documenting these collaborations shed light on the invisible college, replacing the hidden links with published coauthorships. (Right) Although it is unlikely that large collaborations--such as the D0 team in particle physics or the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium pictured here--will come to dominate science, most fields need such collaborations. Indeed, the size of collaborative teams is increasing, turning the scientific enterprise into a densely interconnected network whose evolution is driven by simple universal laws.


Existe uma parte da matemática (associada com a sociologia) que estuda o fenómeno da instituição das redes humanas (network research). Recentemente (imagem1) li um interessantíssimo artigo (Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Networks. Peter S Bearman, James Moody, Katherine Stovel. The American Journal of Sociology. Chicago: Jul 2004.Vol.110, Iss. 1; pg. 44, 48 pgs) que estudava a rede sexual que um grupo de 800 adolescentes criava... A imagem 1 reflecte alguns dos resultados... No ultimo numero da Science aparece um outro artigo, onde se mostram algumas pistas na necessidade de criar as networks certas de forma a obter sucesso na vida...