News + Events

SFI’s annual Business Network and Board of Trustees Symposium in Santa Fe this weekend will explore both the promise and the limits of Big Data, as well as the value of theory in the Big Data context.

A new study co-authored by SFI Omidyar Fellow Ben Althouse and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine finds that smokers are most likely to think about quitting on Monday.

You love math. You really do. I’m not talking about the kind of math that makes cell phones work or the kind that bankers use. I’m talking about math in its purest, most natural form — the kind that moves the planets in their orbits, gives flowers their shape, and makes a chorus sound like angels.

Although the ideals of democracy appear to be globalized, how people see their relationships with their governments varies according to particular perspectives, says SFI Professor Paula Sabloff in a Q&A.

A meeting this week at SFI seeks to promote the development of a theory of sustainability along with the identification of data and knowledge systems to support that theory.

On the podcast/radio show Big Picture Science, SFI Research Fellow Simon DeDeo explains how and why emergence abounds not only in nature, but also in human social systems.

This fall, the Institute welcomes four new SFI Omidyar Fellows for 2014. Meet the new fellows.

As the means to smelt ores and produce bronze spread through Europe, the new technology was one small part of broader sweeping changes in agriculture, animal husbandry, warfare, traditions of construction and settlement, and trade.

In an op-ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican, SFI Research Fellow Simon DeDeo describes the difficulty and promise of working with datasets that capture human experience. Read the article.

Theoretical neuroscientists and mathematicians gathered at SFI recently to explore new ways to let “embodied intelligent systems” – that’s robots – learn coordination. At the small working group October 8-11, 2013 at SFI, nine researchers began hammering out a new theoretical approach for enabling robots to learn to walk, for example, in much the same way infants do.

Innovation in energy technology is booming, according to a new paper in PLOS One that examines what factors set the pace for energy innovation.

SFI Research Fellow Simon DeDeo leads an article on the challenges of analyzing large noisy, unstructured, dynamic datasets such as those that chronicle human affairs.

A review of SFI Professor Paula Sabloff's "Does Everyone Want Democracy? Insights from Mongolia" says her book is an essential addition to academic library collections.

For a few days in September, urban researchers, city planners, and representatives from international organizations and major corporations met at SFI to explore how Big Data can help them better understand and manage cities.

A recent SFI workshop for physicists and computer scientists sought to prompt collaboration on new algorithms for solving problems and modeling nature.

In PNAS, SFI External Professor Ricard Solé and colleagues at Pompeu Fabra University argue that much of the hierarchy in the world could have emerged at random.

SFI External Professor Elisabeth Wood describes the phenomena of rape, torture, and other civilian abuse during wartime. Hear her interview on the Santa Fe Radio Cafe.

Laura Fortunato is among researchers studying the evolution of language and words -- and cultural practices -- much as biologists study how living organisms evolve, according to a New Scientist cover story.

In a September 30 Business Network topical meeting in London, participants explored the evolution of the modern corporation, the corporate life cycle, the impact of globalization, and the relationship between corporations and other major social institutions.

Research led by SFI Chair of Faculty Jennifer Dunne is among 21 new projects being funded by the NSF to develop a better understanding of how humans and the environment interact.