Targeting the social networks of group violence
A strong network of friends may be just as big a factor in acts of group violence as having a charismatic leader or a savvy battle plan, according to a new study. (more…)
Tag Archives: nicholas christakis
Time adds a wrinkle to nature and nurture
Nature and nurture have found a new companion — historical context.
A new study has produced the best evidence yet that the role of genetics in complex traits, including obesity, varies over time. Both the era in which scientific research is conducted and the era in which subjects were born may have an impact on the degree to which genetic factors are present in scientific data. (more…)
Going viral: How ‘social contagion’ begins and escalates
Understanding the roots of a global, contagious spread of online information may help better predict political revolutions, consumer behavior, box office revenues, public policy debates, and even public health epidemics, a new study co-led by Yale University reveals. The model devised for this study, which identifies those roots and analyzes common patterns of dissemination on a global scale, even predicted the rise of “#Obamacare” as a global Twitter trend. The study appears in PLOS ONE.
Attempts to globally monitor the spread of online information have become increasingly difficult because of the explosive growth in the amount of information available and heightened concerns about personal privacy. To get a better understanding of social contagion, the team focused instead on smaller, local network structures, where messages are transmitted from individuals at the center and spread out rapidly to other individuals, who then retransmit them. (more…)
Q&A: What studying networks can tell us about the world and ourselves
There was an opening ceremony on Feb. 5 for the Yale Institute for Network Science (YINS), dedicated to exploring fundamental properties of networks as they appear throughout the biological, physical, and social sciences.
The interdisciplinary institute will be led by co-directors Nicholas Christakis, the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science, and Daniel Spielman, the Henry Ford II Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics.
Christakis and Spielman recently met with YaleNews to discuss the nature of networks and the institute’s mission. The following is an edited version of the conversation. (more…)
The science of living better, longer
Did you ever wonder what science is doing to help us age more comfortably, in better health, doing the things we care about, for a longer span of time?
If so, have a look at the Yale YouTube channel, where the archived video of last week’s symposium exploring research on aging can be viewed. “Aging Research at Yale: Past Present and Future” brought together the director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees the NIH budget, and a panel of Yale researchers whose work examines aging from the molecular level to that of populations. (more…)