Universal rules discovered that allow anticipation of critical transitions
Monday, October 22, 2012 - 08:01
in Biology & Nature
Sudden shifts in complex systems such as the climate, financial markets, ecosystems and even the human body can be preceded by surprisingly comparable warning signals. It is crucial to be able to predict such transitions, but this is notoriously difficult. In an article in the journal Science of October 19, a group of Wageningen University scientists and colleagues showed that systems that are on the verge of a critical transition often emit comparable signals.