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Statistical physics can reveal the fabric of complex networks, for example, potential oligarchies formed by its best-connected members. But care has to be taken to avoid jumping to conclusions.
The tracking of the circulation of dollar bills around the United States, to map human travel patterns, has at last uncovered a physical example of a particular style of random walk.
Certain aspects of two-dimensional turbulence are remarkably similar to those found in critical percolation, and show conformal invariance. But there is both less, and more, to this observation than meets the eye.
The coalescence of neutron stars in compact binaries could produce the intense, short flashes of high-energy radiation observed in gamma-ray bursts. Models suggest that dynamical evolution in old dense stellar clusters, rather than galaxies, may form many of these rare systems.
Treating cancer with beams of high-energy protons is just one of the exciting possibilities presented by the advent of laser-based particle accelerators. But how soon will these devices reach the performance levels needed for such applications, and how will these improvements be made?