Network Science Colloquium Series, 09/24/2025

In 1905 the biologist Edmund Selous wrote of his wonderment when observing a flock of starlings flying overhead “they circle; now dense like a polished roof, now disseminated like the meshes of some vast all-heaven-sweeping net…wheeling, rending, darting…a madness in the sky”. He went on to speculate “They must think collectively, all at the same time, or at least in streaks or patches — a square yard or so of an idea, a flash out of so many brains”. Today, we still know relatively little about how the network of social interactions connect brains—and thus how sensing and information processing arises in such organismal collectives. Employing automated tracking, computational reconstruction of sensory information, and immersive ‘holographic’ virtual reality (VR) experiments, I will discuss newly-discovered geometric principles of collective decision-making that occur across scales of biological organization; from neural networks to the social networks of animal groups. I will also show how this finding can impact humans, including how it can be translated to highly effective control laws for swarming robots, as well as how it has transformed our understanding of locust swarms, one of the most destructive natural phenomena on Earth.

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Through a series of fascinating examples, physicist and data-visualisation specialist César Hidalgo shows how scientific laws of time, space and value allow us to chart how knowledge moves and spreads in the 21st century, helping us understand the emergence of hot and coldspots for scientific and economic growth and development.

Why is it that Silicon Valley in California or Zhongguancun in Beijing are such successful hubs for innovation, where other locations have failed? What sustains the exponential growth in some technologies, like computers, while we forgot how to make Polaroid film?

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What is life? What is intelligence? What is… complexity? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly learn how complexity science, chaos theory, and emergence could be the key to understanding our place in the universe with David Krakauer, president of the Santa Fe Institute and professor in complex systems.

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Life thrives far from equilibrium, driven by dynamic energy flows that build complexity and break symmetry. These flows create patterns, from the mesmerizing murmur of starlings to the rippling protein waves in cells, revealing a self-organizing dance in the physics of living systems. By understanding these patterns, we can understand the arrow of time, energy, and the processes that sustain life, challenging us to perceive existence as a vibrant, evolving ballet.

Nikta is an associate professor in the department of physics at MIT and the physics of living systems group. She studies how to adapt and extend physics concepts to describe how tiny biological components give rise to living organisms. Her research group combines concepts from physics, biology, and engineering to decode non-equilibrium mechanisms in active living matter and exploit these mechanisms to engineer functional, active materials.

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The eighth Dialogue was carried out by Sara Imari Walker and Carlos Gershenson. They explored the role of information in the emergence of complexity and the mechanisms underlying organization in natural and artificial systems. The title was: Information and the Emergence of Complexity. The session took place on November 19th, 2025. It was moderated by IAIS Board member Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic.

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