Here’s a great ABC documentary on Network Theory: How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer.

It illustrates the six degrees of separation phenomenon using the idea of synchronization, the paradox of small worlds, bacon numbers – a game showing how every hollywood actor is linked to Kevin Bacon, the structure of the internet and its hubs, how Sadaam Hussian was caught by disrupting the hubs in his network, and finally a network map of all the human diseases.

Some interesting characteristics of networks they talk about:

• It’s important to understand who is listening to whom in a network
• Events are not isolated; we need to understand how they interact
• Adding a random link can have an enormous impact on the network
• Networks are not random; they have a structure and behaviour (or pattern of behaviour)

And one really good question: How can we shrink the pathways in our network to make it more connected?

Thanks Catherine for sharing the link.