Skeleton key: Diverse complex networks have similar skeletons
Saturday, June 2, 2012 - 21:30
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have discovered that very different complex networks -- ranging from global air traffic to neural networks -- share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton and these skeletons share common features, much like vertebrates do. The findings could be particularly useful in understanding how something -- a disease, a rumor or information -- spreads across a network.