Networks are involved in many aspects of everyday life, from food webs in ecology and the spread of pandemics to social networking and public transportation. In fact, some of the most important and familiar natural systems and social phenomena are based on a networked structure. It is impossible to understand the spread of an epidemic, a computer virus, large-scale blackouts, or massive extinctions without taking into account the network structure that underlies all these phenomena. In this Very Short Introduction, Guido Caldarelli and Michele Catanzaro discuss the nature and variety of networks, using everyday examples from society, technology, nature, and history to illuminate the science of network theory. The authors describe the ubiquitous role of networks, reveal how networks self-organize, explain why the rich get richer, and discuss how networks can spontaneously collapse. They conclude by highlighting how the findings of complex network theory have very wide and important applications in genetics, ecology, communications, economics, and sociology.

Author: Guido Caldarelli, Michele Catanzaro
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/14/2012
Series: Very Short Introductions
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.25lbs
Size: 6.77h x 4.17w x 0.55d
ISBN: 9780199588077

About the Author
Guido Caldarelli is Associate Professor in the Institute of Complex Networks of the National Research Council in Rome, Italy. He is an expert of scale-free networks and self-similar phenomena, especially of the applications of network theory to information technology and biology.

Michele Catanzaro is a freelance science writer based in Barcelona, Spain.