Tag Archives: complexity

increasing complication

Another famous article from the past: P. W. Anderson “More is different” 50 years ago

… the next stage could be hierarchy or specialization of function, or both. At some point we have to stop talking about decreasing symmetry and start calling it increasing complication. Thus, with increasing complication at each stage, we go up on the hierarchy of the sciences. We expect to encounter fascinating and, I believe, very fundamental questions at each stage in fitting together less complicated pieces into a more complicated system and understanding the basically new types of behavior which can result.

Quod licet Jovi not licet Bovi

Rolf Zinkernagel in a commentary in Nature Immunology explains that today almost everything can be measured – and a nearly uncontrollable complexity often paired with weak detection methods renders experiments almost unrepeatable. His recommendations are

Most if not all experiments have limitations. Therefore researchers must think and argue and do experiments contrary to published results and against biases.

Nearly all studies need some funding; funding is controlled by peer review; peer review usually prohibits these experiments. Yea, yea.