Manlio De Domenico
@manlius.bsky.social
Emergence, Networks & Complexity | Collective Behavior(s) from Cells to Societies 🧬🦠🧠🌇
Prof. @UniPadova, Galileo's University | Lab: @comunelab.bsky.social | Web: https://linktr.ee/manlius
Thoughts at manlius.substack.com
Prof. @UniPadova, Galileo's University | Lab: @comunelab.bsky.social | Web: https://linktr.ee/manlius
Thoughts at manlius.substack.com
Pinned
Manlio De Domenico
@manlius.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Complexity Thoughts
YouTube video by Manlio De Domenico
www.youtube.com
Why #ComplexitySci is fascinating?
#ComplexSystems are ubiquitous!🧬🦠🧫🔬🐠🦜🧠🌪️🧪
And provide an analytical framework to study the behavior of phys, bio, eco, human & artificial systems #AcademicSky
Curious? I write about them 👉 #ComplexityThoughts: manlius.substack.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Sv...
#ComplexSystems are ubiquitous!🧬🦠🧫🔬🐠🦜🧠🌪️🧪
And provide an analytical framework to study the behavior of phys, bio, eco, human & artificial systems #AcademicSky
Curious? I write about them 👉 #ComplexityThoughts: manlius.substack.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Sv...
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
Network Medicine is entering a new phase: one that demands we rethink how we study, model and ultimately treat complex diseases.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
November 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Network Medicine is entering a new phase: one that demands we rethink how we study, model and ultimately treat complex diseases.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
400 years old shark.
Slow growth, slow metabolism.
No meetings, and no AI to enhance productivity.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Slow growth, slow metabolism.
No meetings, and no AI to enhance productivity.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Eye lens radiocarbon reveals centuries of longevity in the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus)
Greenland sharks can live to be 400 years old and only become sexually mature at 150, raising conservation concerns.
www.science.org
November 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
400 years old shark.
Slow growth, slow metabolism.
No meetings, and no AI to enhance productivity.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Slow growth, slow metabolism.
No meetings, and no AI to enhance productivity.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Network Medicine is entering a new phase: one that demands we rethink how we study, model and ultimately treat complex diseases.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
November 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Network Medicine is entering a new phase: one that demands we rethink how we study, model and ultimately treat complex diseases.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐
🧵 1/
This study tested whether an unexpected event, such as the presence of a person dressed as Batman, could increase prosocial behavior by disrupting routine.
Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect - npj Mental Health Research
npj Mental Health Research - Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect
www.nature.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:15 PM
This study tested whether an unexpected event, such as the presence of a person dressed as Batman, could increase prosocial behavior by disrupting routine.
Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Not perfect 📸, but fair enough for 1h exposure.
Bortle 7 sky.
No telescope, no AI.
#Astrophotography #Pleiades #M45
Bortle 7 sky.
No telescope, no AI.
#Astrophotography #Pleiades #M45
November 18, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Not perfect 📸, but fair enough for 1h exposure.
Bortle 7 sky.
No telescope, no AI.
#Astrophotography #Pleiades #M45
Bortle 7 sky.
No telescope, no AI.
#Astrophotography #Pleiades #M45
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
NASA Simulation’s Plunge Into a Black Hole: Explained
YouTube video by NASA Goddard
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
Finalizing my pop public talk about modeling for #ComplexSystems, #DigitalTwins, #ClimateChange.
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
November 16, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Finalizing my pop public talk about modeling for #ComplexSystems, #DigitalTwins, #ClimateChange.
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
Science confirms I’m an improbable cocktail of Viking, Phoenician and Arabian ancestry, apparently 🙃
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fifteen millennia of human mitogenome evolution in Sicily
Mitogenomes spanning 15 millennia reveal a genetic discontinuity within Sicily and continuous gene flow from Eurasia and Africa.
www.science.org
November 16, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Science confirms I’m an improbable cocktail of Viking, Phoenician and Arabian ancestry, apparently 🙃
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
NASA Simulation’s Plunge Into a Black Hole: Explained
YouTube video by NASA Goddard
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Finalizing my pop public talk about modeling for #ComplexSystems, #DigitalTwins, #ClimateChange.
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
November 16, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Finalizing my pop public talk about modeling for #ComplexSystems, #DigitalTwins, #ClimateChange.
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
A journey covering nearly 6,000 years, from Helios’s sun to Thor’s thunders, from the Tiangou to chatGPT.
Challenge: explain complicated concepts without math.
Can you guess what this slide is about?
Looking at the current homepage of #ComplexityThoughts it is clear that I don't like #ComplexSystems at all.
November 16, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Looking at the current homepage of #ComplexityThoughts it is clear that I don't like #ComplexSystems at all.
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
Make Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence Again!
(Just a thought for journal editors, peer reviewers, journalists... 😉)
(Just a thought for journal editors, peer reviewers, journalists... 😉)
November 15, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Make Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence Again!
(Just a thought for journal editors, peer reviewers, journalists... 😉)
(Just a thought for journal editors, peer reviewers, journalists... 😉)
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
È bello cercare la bellezza nascosta dove sembra esserci solo buio. È bello stupirsi ancora una volta, nonostante tutto.
Cintura e Nebulosa di Orione (ovvero come rilassarsi a LBT, a fine notte, dopo le osservazioni).
Che la serata sia un abbraccio 🫂
Cintura e Nebulosa di Orione (ovvero come rilassarsi a LBT, a fine notte, dopo le osservazioni).
Che la serata sia un abbraccio 🫂
November 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
È bello cercare la bellezza nascosta dove sembra esserci solo buio. È bello stupirsi ancora una volta, nonostante tutto.
Cintura e Nebulosa di Orione (ovvero come rilassarsi a LBT, a fine notte, dopo le osservazioni).
Che la serata sia un abbraccio 🫂
Cintura e Nebulosa di Orione (ovvero come rilassarsi a LBT, a fine notte, dopo le osservazioni).
Che la serata sia un abbraccio 🫂
Understanding the process that favored the emergence of life is not just about looking backward to 🌎’s first dawn: it’s about learning how complexity itself begins and how it might arise again, elsewhere.
Life as a cascade of transitions?
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/when-matte...
Life as a cascade of transitions?
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/when-matte...
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Understanding the process that favored the emergence of life is not just about looking backward to 🌎’s first dawn: it’s about learning how complexity itself begins and how it might arise again, elsewhere.
Life as a cascade of transitions?
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/when-matte...
Life as a cascade of transitions?
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/when-matte...
Absolutely stunning how media give so much voice to a scientist talking about international conspiracies to hide the "truth" about a gigantic alien spaceship, publishing "articles" on social media.
While no voice is given to scientists publishung everyday evidence on real pressing problems.
🤦
While no voice is given to scientists publishung everyday evidence on real pressing problems.
🤦
November 14, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Absolutely stunning how media give so much voice to a scientist talking about international conspiracies to hide the "truth" about a gigantic alien spaceship, publishing "articles" on social media.
While no voice is given to scientists publishung everyday evidence on real pressing problems.
🤦
While no voice is given to scientists publishung everyday evidence on real pressing problems.
🤦
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
In Padua on Nov 20th?
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
November 12, 2025 at 5:20 PM
In Padua on Nov 20th?
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
In Padua on Nov 20th?
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
November 12, 2025 at 5:20 PM
In Padua on Nov 20th?
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
I’ll give a public non-technical talk, in the beautiful Sala del Romanino at the Eremitani Museum
In 40 minutes, we’ll travel from 3340 B.C. to 2100, exploring how demons, oracles & models have helped humans make sense of the world. Join!
🔗 www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-...
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
According to decades of behavioral experiments, humans defy logic.
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
The unreasonable math of decisions? Part I
Non-classical behaviors without quantum brains
manlius.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:53 PM
According to decades of behavioral experiments, humans defy logic.
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
According to decades of behavioral experiments, humans defy logic.
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
The unreasonable math of decisions? Part I
Non-classical behaviors without quantum brains
manlius.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:53 PM
According to decades of behavioral experiments, humans defy logic.
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
Maybe that's not irrationality; maybe it's better math waiting to be found. Or just to be used to describe non-classical decisions, w/o need for quantum brains.
#ComplexityThoughts
manlius.substack.com/p/the-unreas...
By replying to Elise below, we could generate a nice thread.
Hey complexity and complexity-adjacent people:
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
November 9, 2025 at 2:37 PM
By replying to Elise below, we could generate a nice thread.
The seven sisters were literally dancing over the full moon light.
Not the best conditions for taking pics, but I tried anyway. I can confirm conditions were not good: their blue lights got destroyed by interference with the moon ones.
#Astrophotography #M45 #Pleiades
Not the best conditions for taking pics, but I tried anyway. I can confirm conditions were not good: their blue lights got destroyed by interference with the moon ones.
#Astrophotography #M45 #Pleiades
November 8, 2025 at 9:20 AM
The seven sisters were literally dancing over the full moon light.
Not the best conditions for taking pics, but I tried anyway. I can confirm conditions were not good: their blue lights got destroyed by interference with the moon ones.
#Astrophotography #M45 #Pleiades
Not the best conditions for taking pics, but I tried anyway. I can confirm conditions were not good: their blue lights got destroyed by interference with the moon ones.
#Astrophotography #M45 #Pleiades
Cooperation isn’t weakness, it’s strategy.
Axelrod’s rules remind us: fairness, reciprocity and humility often outcompete envy and cleverness.
In complexity, often simplicity wins.
Axelrod’s rules remind us: fairness, reciprocity and humility often outcompete envy and cleverness.
In complexity, often simplicity wins.
November 6, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Cooperation isn’t weakness, it’s strategy.
Axelrod’s rules remind us: fairness, reciprocity and humility often outcompete envy and cleverness.
In complexity, often simplicity wins.
Axelrod’s rules remind us: fairness, reciprocity and humility often outcompete envy and cleverness.
In complexity, often simplicity wins.
Thinking we’re the peak of civilization, right?
Well, 3,000 years ago early Maya communities built a landscape cosmogram (a vast earthly map of the cosmos) without kings, armies, coercion.
Collective imagination and cooperation shaped order in their universe. ✨
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Well, 3,000 years ago early Maya communities built a landscape cosmogram (a vast earthly map of the cosmos) without kings, armies, coercion.
Collective imagination and cooperation shaped order in their universe. ✨
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Landscape-wide cosmogram built by the early community of Aguada Fénix in southeastern Mesoamerica
The cosmogram of Aguada Fénix built over the landscape between 1050 and 700 BCE rivaled the extents of later Mesoamerican cities.
www.science.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Thinking we’re the peak of civilization, right?
Well, 3,000 years ago early Maya communities built a landscape cosmogram (a vast earthly map of the cosmos) without kings, armies, coercion.
Collective imagination and cooperation shaped order in their universe. ✨
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Well, 3,000 years ago early Maya communities built a landscape cosmogram (a vast earthly map of the cosmos) without kings, armies, coercion.
Collective imagination and cooperation shaped order in their universe. ✨
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Manlio De Domenico
TL;DR: Even the most advanced language models crumble on first-person false beliefs, showing sharp accuracy drops and revealing that their “understanding” of others’ minds is still shallow pattern mimicry, not genuine epistemic reasoning.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Language models cannot reliably distinguish belief from knowledge and fact - Nature Machine Intelligence
Suzgun et al. find that current large language models cannot reliably distinguish between belief, knowledge and fact, raising concerns for their use in healthcare, law and journalism, where such disti...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:19 PM
TL;DR: Even the most advanced language models crumble on first-person false beliefs, showing sharp accuracy drops and revealing that their “understanding” of others’ minds is still shallow pattern mimicry, not genuine epistemic reasoning.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...