dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaHuman Dynamics: The Correspondence Patterns of Darwin and Einstein
| Authors | J. G. Oliveira, A. -L. Barabási |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0511006 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0511006 |
| DOI | 10.1038/4371251a |
| Journal | Nature 437, 1251 (2005) |
Abstract
While living in different historical era, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) were both prolific correspondents: Darwin sent (received) at least 7,591 (6,530) letters during his lifetime while Einstein sent (received) over 14,500 (16,200). Before email scientists were part of an extensive university of letters, the main venue for exchanging new ideas and results. But were the communication patterns of the pre-email times any different from the current era of instant access? Here we show that while the means have changed, the communication dynamics has not: Darwin's and Einstein's pattern of correspondence and today's electronic exchanges follow the same scaling laws. Their communication belongs, however, to a different universality class from email communication, providing evidence for a new class of phenomena capturing human dynamics.
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"abstract": "While living in different historical era, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and\nAlbert Einstein (1879-1955) were both prolific correspondents: Darwin sent\n(received) at least 7,591 (6,530) letters during his lifetime while Einstein\nsent (received) over 14,500 (16,200). Before email scientists were part of an\nextensive university of letters, the main venue for exchanging new ideas and\nresults. But were the communication patterns of the pre-email times any\ndifferent from the current era of instant access? Here we show that while the\nmeans have changed, the communication dynamics has not: Darwin\u0027s and Einstein\u0027s\npattern of correspondence and today\u0027s electronic exchanges follow the same\nscaling laws. Their communication belongs, however, to a different universality\nclass from email communication, providing evidence for a new class of phenomena\ncapturing human dynamics.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0511006",
"authors": [
"J. G. Oliveira",
"A. -L. Barab\u00e1si"
],
"categories": [
"physics.soc-ph"
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"doi": "10.1038/4371251a",
"journal_ref": "Nature 437, 1251 (2005)",
"title": "Human Dynamics: The Correspondence Patterns of Darwin and Einstein",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0511006"
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