Recently by Jack Cohen
About 90% of you isn't actually "you". In terms of cell count, a typical human being is outnumbered roughly 10 to one by the microbes that reside in and on their body. You and the microscopic beasts inside you are a complex ecology; mess about with one part, and unexpected things might happen.
When we take antibiotics, we're hammering that ecology, sometimes not for the long-term good of us or the beasts.
There was a truly remarkable article on just this topic in Nature a couple of months ago: "Stop the killing of beneficial bacteria" by Martin Blaser of New York University (Nature 476 pp 393-4; see also article about it in the New York Times.).
Last week in Nature there was a very illuminating paper, called "Controllability of complex networks" by Liu, Slotine and -- particularly -- Barabasi.
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi has been in the complexity field for many years, and has brought illumination to many areas, from engineering and natural systems like ecology to complex social systems. (He also writes compellingly good books for the non-scientist.)
The idea of 'controlling complex systems' seems much too general to do any real mathematics with, but the authors of the Nature paper show very clearly that
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Kate Cooper - New Optimists founder
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Russell Beale - Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, University of Birmingham
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Roslyn Bill - Reader in Molecular Biosciences & Director of the Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing
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Jack Cohen - Science of Discworld author, retired reproductive biologist, Hon Prof at the Maths Institute, University of Warwick
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Jon Frampton - Director of Research and Professor of Stem Cell Biology, University of Birmingham
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Alison Murray - Former postdoc biochemist, then TV producer and science writer
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James Tucker - Reader in Supramolecular Chemistry, University of Birmingham
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Kenny Webster - Resident Scientist at Thinktank Birmingham
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Craig Jackson - Professor of Workplace Health Psychology and Head of the Psychology Dept at BCU
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Miriam Gifford - A researcher in plant science in the School of Life Sciences & the Warwick Systems Biology Centre, University of Warwick
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Lucy Harper - Communications manager at the Society for Applied Microbiology
Chris Dyke - MedilinkWM Director driving collaboration between science and industry to develop innovative healthcare
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