Is there a #mathematical framework for abrupt change? Christopher Zeeman was one of the key figures behind #CatastropheTheory, a topological approach to discontinuous behavior that later informed much of today’s work on #TippingPoints. Just came across his elegant 1976 paper, outlining his core ideas:

📄 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24950329

#DynamicalSystems #Topology #ComplexSystems

🧠 New preprint by Zhong et al. proposes a #synaptic mechanism for #chunking in #WorkingMemory.

Using short-term #plasticity and synaptic augmentation, their model shows how items can be temporarily suppressed and later retrieved as chunks, increasing effective capacity w/o increasing simultaneous activity.

🌍 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.109538.1

#Neuroscience #CompNeuro #SynapticPlasticity

🧠 New preprint on adaptive contagion dynamics on #hypergraphs by Mancastroppa, Karsai, & Barrat.

The key result: adaptive, locally informed behavior can neutralize explosive phase transitions in higher-order contagion. Group-level awareness suppresses nonlinear reinforcement, shrinks bistability, and can turn a discontinuous transition into a continuous one. A nice mechanistic link between adaptivity, higher-order interactions, and phase transitions.

#ComplexSystems #NonlinearDynamics

🧬 New paper by Dera et al. in Science Advances proposing a geometric complexity space to map the full morphological diversity of life.

Striking result: life occupies only a tiny, clustered region of all geometrically possible forms, with large heteromorphic regions systematically avoided. The authors argue that this reflects deep physical and developmental constraints shaping evolution.

🌍 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea6945

#Evolution #Complexity #Geometry #Morphology