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SUMMARY:Gödel\, Escher\, Mahler: love-hate dynamics in ecological network
 s - Yangchen Lin\, Department of Zoology\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20120316T130000Z
DTEND:20120316T140000Z
UID:TALK36761@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jessica C. Walsh
DESCRIPTION:The network approach to the long-drawn but increasingly societ
 y-relevant ecosystem-complexity-stability debate started by Robert May is 
 a sizzling hot topic today\, with three major papers in <i>Science</i>\, <
 i>Nature</i> and <i>Ecology Letters</i> within the past month. A chronic s
 ymptom identified by these papers is that most preceding research has exam
 ined ecological networks as entities frozen in time\, as subgraphs of a si
 ngle type of species interaction\, as collections of binary switches\, or 
 by extrapolating from observations of small subsets of species. These draw
 backs have often been overcome in isolation but rarely all at the same tim
 e. I will present a theoretical model that brings almost everything togeth
 er yet keeps it simple. We will hear that this paradox is not a paradox an
 d how and why the model differs from apparently similar products in the ma
 rket. Controversially\, it does not 'predict'. I will explore how such a m
 odel could enrich a culture in which people justifiably want results of im
 mediate 'applicability to the real world'\, and discuss how my particular 
 formulation may help answer important questions.
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology\, Downing Street\
 , Cambridge CB2 3EJ
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