Newswise News from Santa Fe Institute

Models suggest that when social isolation and coinfection occur together, diseases can spread faster and further than with either effect alone.

A team from the Santa Fe Institute, Arizona State University, and Slum Dwellers International has been selected to find new ways to help the world's poorest, most vulnerable communities.

Using a new methodology that measures how closely words' meanings are related within and between languages, an international team of researchers has revealed that for many universal concepts, the world's languages feature a common structure of semantic relatedness.

New research explores the impact of hunter-gatherers on north Pacific marine food webs and the behaviors that helped preserve their network of food sources. The findings hold implications for modern food webs.

Young male bluebirds may gain an evolutionary advantage by delaying breeding and helping out their parents' nests instead, according to new research led by Caitlin Stern of the Santa Fe Institute.

New research suggests that larger crowds do not always produce wiser decisions. Moderately-sized crowds are likely to outperform larger ones when faced with combinations of easy and difficult qualitative decisions.

When disease outbreaks occur, front-line workers become infected and healthy individuals take their places. Based on network models of this "human exchange," researchers from the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Vermont find that replacing sick individuals with healthy ones can actually accelerate the spread of infection.

A new study suggests that people who participate in regular religious acts send a clear signal to others that they're ready and willing to contribute to their communities.

Three researchers have devised a new network community detection technique that hopscotches over the limitations of other methods, revealing network structure at the microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic levels quickly and simultaneously.

Modern European cities and medieval cities share a population-density-to-area relationship, a new paper concludes - the latest research to find regularities in human settlement patterns across space and time.

What is the best way for a group to collaborate on solving a difficult problem? A new study finds that the answer depends on how that particular group learns.

Researchers suggest a better algorithm for digital recommendation systems that suggest songs, movies, or romantic partners for you.

Networks evolve in different ways depending how often "second neighbor," or friends of friends, connections occur.

A new technique based in information theory promises to improve researchers' ability to interpret ice core samples and our understanding of the earth's climate history.

Investigating the lower bound of energy required for life helps us understand ecological constraints on other planetary bodies in our solar system as well as our own. In a new study, researchers analyze cellular processes across species and sizes of bacteria, to zoom in on life's minimal energy requirements.

Why do salmon travel in pulse-like groups? A new model challenges standard explanations by suggesting social cues trigger migration.

When public goods like clean water, air, and health care compete with funding for particular districts, citizen lawsuits can tilt the legislative process toward a middle ground.

Understanding how cities develop at the neighborhood level is key to promoting equitable, sustainable urbanization.

In an article that appears in the current issue of Evolutionary Anthropology, researchers synthesize over 15 years of theoretical and empirical findings from long-term study of the Tsimane forager-farmers. They find productivity and social status peak long after physical strength.

When many individual neurons collect data, how do they reach a unanimous decision? New research from the Santa Fe Institute's collective computation group suggests a two-phase process.

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