Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 459, 332-334 (21 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/459332a; Published online 20 May 2009
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Single-cell Analysis Platform
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to analyzing changes at a single-cell level. This is...
-
Direct Molecular Detection of Proteins and Nucleic Acids
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to protein and nucleic acid detection. This is an Id...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Associate Professor or Full Professor
- South Dakota State University
- Brookings, SD
Gastroenterologist
- Gastrointestinal Diseases Inc.
- Georgia, USA
Computation: The edge of reductionism
P.-M. Binder1
Abstract
Research at the frontier between computer science and physics illustrates the shortcomings of the reductionist approach to science, which explains macroscopic behaviour using microscopic principles.
In his 1972 paper "More is different", Philip Anderson1 claimed that multi-component physical systems can exhibit macroscopic behaviour that cannot be understood from the laws that govern their microscopic parts — a feature known as emergent or complex behaviour. Anderson's position is at odds with that of Stephen Hawking, who once suggested2 that, as soon as all fundamental laws of the Universe are understood, we will in principle be able to explain all macroscopic phenomena.
- P.-M. Binder is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Email: pbinder@hawaii.edu
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Three dimensions for twoNature News and Views (29 Mar 1984)
Philosophy of science Theories of almost everythingNature News and Views (16 Oct 2008)
See all 7 matches for News And ViewsRESEARCH
A novel missense mutation (I344K) in the SPG4 gene in a Korean family with autosomal-dominant hereditary spastic paraplegiaJournal of Human Genetics Original Article
Identification of IGFBP-6 as an effector of the tumor suppressor activity of SEMA3BOncogene Original Article
Evolutionary games and spatial chaosNature Letters to Editor (29 Oct 1992)
