Mark Buchanan (born October 31, 1961 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

) is an American outreach physicist and author. He was formerly an editor with the international journal of science ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'', and the popular science magazine ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

''. He has been a guest columnist for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', and currently writes a monthly column for the journal ''

Nature Physics ''Nature Physics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was first published in October 2005 (volume 1, issue 1). The chief editor is Andrea Taroni, who is a full-time professional editor employed by this ...

''. Buchanan's books and articles typically explore ideas of

modern physics Modern physics is a branch of physics that developed in the early 20th century and onward or branches greatly influenced by early 20th century physics. Notable branches of modern physics include quantum mechanics, special relativity and general ...

, especially in

quantum theory Quantum theory may refer to: Science *Quantum mechanics, a major field of physics *Old quantum theory, predating modern quantum mechanics * Quantum field theory, an area of quantum mechanics that includes: ** Quantum electrodynamics ** Quantum ch ...

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...

, with an emphasis on efforts to use novel concepts from physics to understand patterns and dynamics elsewhere, especially in biology or in the human

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

. Key themes include, but are not limited to the (often overlooked) importance of

spontaneous order Spontaneous order, also named self-organization in the hard sciences, is the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming chaos. The term "self-organization" is more often used for physical changes and biological processes, while "spontaneous o ...

self-organization Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spontaneous when suffi ...

in collective,

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

. All of his work aims to bring technical advances in modern science to a broad, non-technical audience, and to help stimulate the flow of ideas across disciplinary boundaries. He has been awarded, in June 2009, the

Lagrange Prize The Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize is an annual International award created by the CRT Foundation with the scientific coordination of the ISI Foundation. The prize is awarded for scientific research in the field of complexity sciences, its appl ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, regarding

science writing Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists, and the public. Origins Modern science journalism dates back to ''Digdarshan'' (means showing the di ...

in the field of

complexity Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interaction, interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generall ...

Books

# ''Ubiquity: The Science of History… or Why the World is Simpler Than We Think'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2000); short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. # ''Nexus: Small Worlds and the New Science of Networks'' (W.W. Norton & Co, New York, 2002); short-listed for the Aventis Science Writing Prize in 2003. # ''The Social Atom'' (Bloomsbury Press, New York, 2007). # ''Forecast: What Physics, Meteorology, and the Natural Sciences Can Teach Us About Economics '' ( Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London 2013)

References

External links

*
Mark Buchanan's blogTalk (June 2007) at Xerox PARC (on ideas of ''The Social Atom'').''New York Times'' column (May 2007)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan, Mark 1961 births Living people 21st-century American physicists American science writers