Universal resilience patterns in complex networks

"Resilience, a system's ability to adjust its activity to retain its basic functionality when errors, failures and environmental changes occur, is a defining property of many complex systems. Despite widespread consequences for human health, the economy and the environment, events leading to loss of resilience—from cascading failures in technological systems to mass extinctions in ecological networks—are rarely predictable and are often irreversible. These limitations are rooted in a theoretical gap: the current analytical framework of resilience is designed to treat low-dimensional models with a few interacting components, and is unsuitable for multi-dimensional systems consisting of a large number of components that interact through a complex network. Here we bridge this theoretical gap by developing a set of analytical tools with which to identify the natural control and state parameters of a multi-dimensional complex system, helping us derive effective one-dimensional dynamics that accurately predict the system's resilience. The proposed analytical framework allows us systematically to separate the roles of the system's dynamics and topology, collapsing the behaviour of different networks onto a single universal resilience function. The analytical results unveil the network characteristics that can enhance or diminish resilience, offering ways to prevent the collapse of ecological, biological or economic systems, and guiding the design of technological systems resilient to both internal failures and environmental changes."

(Jianxi Gao, Baruch Barzel & Albert-László Barabási, 17 February 2016, Nature)

Make informed purchasing decisions using Palm Oil barcode scanner

"POI (Palm Oil Investigations) has launched a Palm Oil barcode scanner for Australia and New Zealand products. ...

Scan the product barcode. Read the palm oil status. Select an alternative ethical product. Send a pre-written email to the company. Hit buy to compile ethical purchasing percentages and share your percentage to social media so you can show how you are making a difference.

Around 40% of products on supermarket shelves contain palm oil. Palm oil is a common ingredient in food (Biscuits, bakery items, Ice Cream, Chocolate, Confectionery, Crisps, Margarine, Health food bars, Cereals) etc. Derivatives of the oil are common in personal care products (Shampoo, Conditioner, Soaps, Skin care, Toothpaste) as well as household cleaning and detergents.

Rarely labelled by its correct name, palm oil is the hidden ingredient. There are over 200 names for palm oil its derivatives, the most common is the generic term vegetable oil. Other common names used in food production are emulsifier 471 and humectant glycerol."

(Palm Oil Investigations)

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An animated meditation on destructive consumption practices

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OCEAN2012 Transforming European Fisheries

"Since its start in 1983, the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has failed to prevent overfishing. Over 25 years, short–term economic interest and political expediency has landed European fisheries in deep crisis."

(European Marine Programme of the Pew Environment Group)

Dara Ó Briain's Science Club: A Dodo's Guide to Extinction

"A few hundred years ago, extinction as a concept made no sense to anyone. But then fossil finds and advances in geology showed that it's part of life, and a statistical certainty – even for human beings."

(BBC Two, UK)

Fig.1 this animation is from Episode 3 of 6 of Dara Ó Briain's Science Club, Tuesday 20 November at 9pm on BBC Two, voiced by Helen McCrory, animated by 12Foot6, Published on YouTube on 19 Nov 2012 by BBC.