Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else what It Means for Business, Science and Everyday Life by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo Barbasi

From Barnes & Noble

From one of the seminal researchers in the field comes this highly readable explanation of how networks form the foundation of everything from human societies to the living world, physics, and much more. Interconnectedness as a framework for understanding has revolutionized such disparate fields as cancer research and business strategy.

From the Publisher

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the nation's foremost expert in the new science of networks, takes us on an intellectual adventure to prove that social networks, corporations, and living organisms are more similar than previously thought. A full understanding of network science will someday enhance our ability to design blue-chip businesses, stop the outbreak of deadly diseases, and influence the exchange of ideas and information. Engaging and authoritative, Linked provides an exciting glimpse into the next century of science and an urgent new perspective on our interconnected world.

A timely book.

Science Magazine - Donald Kennedy

A sweeping look at a new and exciting science.

Rain

Truly fascinating...Linked is a richly connected book.

Nature

The work is presented in a highly digestible form...Interesting and informative...(an extremely valuable contribution to the popular-science literature.

Washington Post

A lively look at networks through time.

New Scientist

Enlightening...[An] extremely well-written entertaining account aimed at the intelligent lay audience.

Seattle Times

[Rheingold] paints an excellent picture of a range of transformative technologies.

Washington Monthly

Barabasi's research has some profound implications...An important guidebook.

Time Out New York

Captivating...Linked is a playful, even exuberant romp through an exciting new field.

New York Times

Well written...an intellectual detective journey.

Christian Science Monitor

A pleasure to read.

Detroit Free Press

Linked is the best choice for the layperson,because [Barabasi] minimizes the math and writes elegantly.

Washington Business Forward

Grounded in research...[ Smart Mobs is] well-written and concise and will leave you feeling a little more connected yourself.

Network World

Time spent reading [Linked] will be among the most entertaining, mind-expanding, and thought-provoking hours you'll spend.

Nature Immunology

An engaging voyage into the realm of networks.

Publishers Weekly

Information, disease, knowledge and just about everything else is disseminated through a complex series of networks made up of interconnected hubs, argues University of Notre Dame physics professor Barab si. These networks are replicated in every facet of human life: "There is a path between any two neurons in our brain, between any two companies in the world, between any two chemicals in our body. Nothing is excluded from this highly interconnected web of life." In accessible prose, Barab si guides readers through the mathematical foundation of these networks. He shows how they operate on the Power Law, the notion that "a few large events carry most of the action." The Web, for example, is "dominated by a few very highly connected nodes, or hubs... such as Yahoo! or Amazon.com." Barab si notes that "the fittest node will inevitably grow to become the biggest hub." The elegance and efficiency of these structures also makes them easy to infiltrate and sabotage; Barab si looks at modern society's vulnerability to terrorism, and at the networks formed by terrorist groups themselves. The book also gives readers a historical overview on the study of networks, which goes back to 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler and includes the well-known "six degrees phenomenon" developed in 1967 by sociology professor Stanley Milgram. The book may remind readers of Steven Johnson's Emergence and with its emphasis on the mathematical underpinnings of social behavior Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point (which Barab si discusses); those who haven't yet had their fill of this new subgenre should be interested in Barab si's lively and ambitious account. (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Donald Kennedy
A sweeping look at a new and exciting science.
—Science Magazine

Product Details

• ISBN: 0452284392
  
• ISBN-13: 9780452284395
• Format: Paperback, 304pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Pub. Date: April 2003
• Edition Description: Reissue
• Sales Rank: 29,565

• Table of Contents
• Interviews & Essays
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Interviews & Essays

The answer lies in the fact that society is a very densely connected network in which we are nodes, and links represent our numerous social, professional, or family relationships. Recently, we've learned that the small worlds we experience in society are just about everywhere. Three years ago, my research group showed that most web pages are 19 clicks from each other, and that between any two chemicals in our cells there is a chain of three reactions. We learned that behind the popular "Kevin Bacon" game is Hollywood's tiny world, in which most actors are only three links from each other via movies in which they appeared together. Economists have realized that all Fortune 1000 directors are fewer than five handshakes from each other through the boards on which they jointly serve.

Yet, the most important revelation about networks -- the one that is exciting scientists from all disciplines -- has little to do with small worlds. Rather, it is the realization that the networks appearing in all different segments of nature and society are practically indistinguishable. We now understand that real networks are far from being a bunch of nodes randomly linked to each other. Instead, a few hubs -- nodes with an exceptionally large number of connections -- keep most networks together. A few individuals with an extraordinary ability to make friends keep society together. A few web pages to which everybody links (such as Yahoo! and Google) hold the World Wide Web together. Actors like Rod Steiger, who has links to more than 4,000 performers, are keeping Hollywood together (sorry, Bacon is not one of these hubs). Businessmen like Vernon Jordan hold the network of board directors together (he's just three handshakes from all other Fortune 1000 directors). My ability to write this essay is guaranteed by a few rather active molecules within my cells -- ones that hold the subtle subcellular chemical network together.

In the last three years, we've learned that hubs play a key role in making our world a small one. Just as when your journey between two small airports inevitably takes you through one or two airline hubs, the hubs in social or communication networks are at the center of the many paths connecting the nodes. Hubs guarantee that buzz and ideas will spread or that your message on the Internet gets to its destination in a very short time, and they are responsible for the outbreak of medical epidemics and computer viruses.

Probably the important lesson that we can glean from the new science of networks is that our small society is not that special. It follows simple but rigid laws that govern the growth and evolution of most networks in nature. We are just discovering how pervasive networks are, and how deeply they affect all aspects of our life. We have learned that to make sense of this complex interconnected world around us, we must start thinking networks. (Albert-László Barabási)

Read an Excerpt