Epidemics, Kevin Bacon, and the New Science of Networks

There are networks in every part of our lives: the Internet, the road network, networks of friendship or acquaintance, biochemical networks, ecological networks, the power grid, and many others. As large-scale data on these networks has become available in the last few years, a new science of networks has grown up combining observations and theory to shed light on systems ranging from bacteria to the whole of human society. This talk will give an introduction to this rapidly-growing interdisciplinary branch of science, and explain some its best known results and what they can tell us about the way the world works.