News + Events

A working group, “Hallmarks of Biological Failure,” meets to discuss the patterns of mortality, biological failure, and system collapse.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute and the Santa Fe Institute have developed a new model to explain the evolutionary origins of empathy and other related phenomena, such as emotional contagion and contagious yawning. The model suggests that the origin of a broad range of empathetic responses lies in cognitive simulation.

Working group meets to explore how and why people categorize phenomena into overly simplistic distinctions. 

Research jams, intercontinental collaborations, and lightning talks — the Postdocs in Complexity Conference is back!

On March 26, SFI External Professor Srividya Iyer-Biswas presented a Community Lecture at The Lensic on the laws that govern life, time, and chance.

Working group meets to formalize a better understanding of human cell types.

Since the 1970s, community ecologists have relied on two theories to explain the role that species interactions play in Earth's astonishing biological diversity. An SFI working group takes steps to integrate those two theories. 

When only two things interact, the outcome is usually easily to predict. But what happens when you add a third — or fourth, or fifth, or more — component to the mix? The effects of such higher-order interactions can be difficult to forecast, and are the subject of a working group that meets this week at SFI.

A small working group at SFI outlines possible new directions for research at the interface between economics, public policy, and philosophy.

The Santa Fe Institute again has ranked among the world's top science and technology and transdisciplinary think tanks.

A working group meeting February 4-6 begins to develop a generalizable theory about the role of information in group conflict.

A working group meets to identify the mechanims that drive different species to make different social choices — band together or go it solo — during times of food shortage.

A working group meets to explore the complex dynamics between plants and animals, predators and prey, and how changes in those interactions can lead to irreversible transitions in ecological communities.

Danielle Bassett presented an SFI Community Lecture on networks and how we, as networks, use network science to think about ourselves at The Lensic Performing Arts Center on February 19.

Jennifer Dunne, Stefani Crabtree, and colleagues present their ArcheoEcology work in two back-to-back symposia, “How Human Interactions with Biodiversity Shape Socio-Ecological Dynamics in Deep Time” on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 1:30 and 3:30 pm at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington, D.C.

One of the first studies to examine how climate is influencing "functional traits" in forest communities on a global scale finds evidence of major changes. 

A new paper published in the journal Entropy shows how tools from information theory, a branch of complexity science, can help decipher ice cores by quickly homing in on portions of the data that require further investigation. 

An SFI working group hopes to develop a model that can resolve some of the paradoxes of sexual selection.

A working group at the Santa Fe Institute recently convened to further ecological and evolutionary theory and craft an application for a National Science Foundation (NSF) “Rules of Life” grant.

An SFI Working Group meets to explore the big picture on viruses, from infections of single cells to epidemics among populations.