Similar Structures for Complex Networks
December 26, 2012
A recent breakthrough in network science has Daily News & Analysis declaring, “Universe, Human Brain, and Internet Have Similar Structures.” Hmm, do they work in similar ways as well? Dmitri Krioukov, co-author of the paper published by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, is quick to point out that “by no means do we claim that the universe is a global brain or a computer.” I’m glad he clarified that.
Predicting the dynamics of complex networks has long been a key obstacle in the field of network science. Researchers suspect that some universal laws could be extrapolated from structural and dynamical similarities, but divining them is a real challenge. The write-up explains how Krioukov’s team, based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, made their recent leap:
“Of course the network representing the structure of the universe is astronomically huge – in fact it can be infinite. . . . Yet the researchers found a way to downscale this humongous network while preserving its vital properties, by proving mathematically that these properties do not depend on the network size in a certain range of parameters, such as the curvature and age of our universe.”
“After the downscaling, the research team turned to Trestles, one of SDSC’s data-intensive supercomputers, to perform simulations of the universe’s growing causal network. By parallelizing and optimizing the application, Robert Sinkovits, a computational scientist with SDSC, was able to complete in just over one day a computation that was originally projected to require three to four years.”
Well, that certainly frees up some time. Sinkovits notes that, though the correlation could be coincidence, that is highly unlikely. Scientists hope further research will turn up some fundamental laws about the dynamics of complex networks.
Michael Norman, director of the SDSC, lauds the breakthrough as a triumph of their unique combination of math, physics, and computer science. Ah, collaboration—more than the sum of its parts.
Cynthia Murrell, December 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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